Ray Kurzweil, Director of Engineering at Google, has been hailed as "the rightful heir to Thomas Edison". Kurzweil's ability to predict future technologies, and his own groundbreaking inventions, have amazed the world
A lifetime dedicated to innovation has led to Ray Kurzweil being heralded as one of the US’ greatest pioneers – by those in the know, at least
Given that he’s been hailed as one of the greatest innovators of the last 50 years, it’s not hard to see why Google snapped up Ray Kurzweil’s services in 2012. A pioneering thinker since the 1970s, he has accurately predicted – despite derision at times – many of the technologies that people take for granted today.
Inc. magazine dubbed Kurzweil “the rightful heir to Thomas Edison”, while PBS described him as one of the 30 innovators that “created America”. Such gushing praise might seem over the top for someone who hasn’t enjoyed the same household recognition as many of his contemporaries, but those who know of his contributions to society hold Kurzweil in an extremely high regard. While the likes of Bill Gates and Steve Jobs have rightfully taken home the plaudits – and riches – for their own innovations, Kurzweil has preferred to stand outside the spotlight.
Kurzweil’s predictions have been varied and impressively accurate. In the 1980s, he suggested the internet would be a central part of people’s lives, even though it was just a niche technology at the time. He also predicted computers would be capable of defeating humans at chess shortly before Garry Kasparov, the world chess champion, was beaten by a computer designed by IBM.
Kurzweil’s predictions have been varied and impressively accurate
But it hasn’t all been talk: Kurzweil is also an extraordinarily successful inventor in a wide range of fields. He has pioneered hugely successful new technologies in health, speech recognition, artificial intelligence, and even music.
Kurzweil has been the recipient of a number of awards, including the $500,000 MIT-Lemelson Prize (considered the top honour in the world for innovators) in 2001. In 1999, he received the US’ highest technology honour, the National Medal of Technology and Innovation, from President Bill Clinton. In 2002, he joined the likes of Guglielmo Marconi, Edison, Jobs and Nikola Tesla when the US Patent Office inducted him into the National Inventors Hall of Fame. Over the course of his career he has received 20 honorary doctorates in recognition of his incredible contribution and inspiring dedication to innovation.
Early starter
Born in 1948, Kurzweil was raised in New York City by Jewish parents who had fled Austria shortly before the Second World War. An enthusiastic reader of science fiction, he would spend his days at school focusing on his own projects instead of studying. Heavily influenced by an uncle who worked as an engineer at research centre Bell Labs, he began to learn computer science in his early teens.
Kurzweil went on to study at MIT, gaining a bachelorship in computer science and literature in 1970. At the same time, he formed a company that used a computer programme to match high school students with relevant colleges. It was such a success that he soon sold the company to Harcourt, Brace & World for $100,000 (more than $600,000 in today’s money).
By 1974, he had founded Kurzweil Computer Products, which led the development of the first scanner. His work also led to great advances for blind people, with the invention of the first print-to-speech reading machine and the first text-to-speech synthesiser, as well as the first computer program capable of recognising written text. A commercial version of the scanning program was later released, which proved hugely popular and led to the company being bought out by Lernout & Hauspie. The new owners were later subsumed into Xerox and are now well known as Nuance Communications..... C
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