Volume 46, Number 6 · April 8, 1999
I Married a Computer
By John R. Searle
The Age of Spiritual Machines: When Computers Exceed Human Intelligence
by Ray Kurzweil
Viking, 388 pp., $25.95
Moore's Law on Integrated Circuits was first formulated by Gordon Moore, former head of Intel, in the mid-Sixties. I have seen different versions of it, but the basic idea is that better chip technology will produce an exponential increase in computer power. Every two years you get twice as much computer power and capacity for the same amount of money. Anybody who, like me, buys a new computer every few years observes Moore's Law in action. Each time I buy a new computer I pay about the same amount of money as, and sometimes even less than, I paid for the last computer, but I get a much more powerful machine. And according to Ray Kurzweil, a distinguished software engineer and inventor, 'There have been about thirty-two doublings of speed and capacity since the first operating computers were built in the 1940s.'
Review, 5655 words
To read the full text of this piece, please choose one of the following options:
|
If you are already a subscriber to the Review's electronic edition, please sign in: |
To subscribe to the electronic edition, please press the button below. |
To purchase access to this article for $3, please press the button below. |