ABSTRACT
Ray Kurzweil’s thought is a prophetic and logical extension of Victor Frankenstein’s Promethean dream. He argues that the exponential growth of computer technology and genetic engineering is toward the creation of a new species whose evolutionary destiny is to wake up the dumb matter of the universe and saturate it with human intelligence. At this moment of singularity not only will the umbilical cord of gravity that tethers us to the earth be broken, but also those who are “enhanced” will have shed the husk of the human body. Kurzweil’s bold claim raises the question if we are already far along the path toward becoming the last generations of human kind. In digital space we are increasingly as much and more familiar with feeling at home in the world-wide-web as the astronaut is in outer space and on the moon. At the computer terminal we are increasingly comfortable with what has been called our terminal identity and another step closer to Kurzweil’s dream when all human knowledge will be downloaded into the cloud. That moment, he says, is about as close to God as one can imagine. Victor Frankenstein’s dream reverberates in those words and we know the consequences of that dream.
