feature listfrom | Timethe Time 100 :: The readers choice list.

no. 30 | Ray Kurzweil
March 1, 2022

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publication: Time
feature list: the Time 100 :: The readers choice list.
deck: The 100 most influential people in the world.
year: 2011

read | feature list
read | Ray Kurzweil profile


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card :: Time


An introduction.

For the Time 100 list — our Time magazine editors select the leaders, artists, innovators, icons, and heroes they think are the most influential people in the world. The list is printed in the annual Time 100 — a special edition of the magazine.

Leading-up to the final selections, Time conducts a poll — gathering votes for who you think should make the list. We publish that Readers Choice list digitally, along with the candidate bios.

Meet the world’s most captivating people. They’re artists, activists, reformers, researchers, politicians, and captains of industry. Their ideas spark dialogue, and sometimes dissent.

Time


— no. 30 —

profile | Ray Kurzweil

The best-selling author, inventor, and futurist Ray Kurzweil — ranked no. 30 on the Readers Choice list for year 2011. Picked for general popularity and contributions to society, science, and knowledge. Already a certified genius in high school, Kurzweil sold his first software company in college.

He went on to craft — like the historic pioneer Thomas Edison — a brood of useful inventions. He’s known widely for his influential, theoretical non-fiction books about humanity’s future. Kurzweil is a prophet of the singularity: a scenario in which computers evolve into powerful artificial intelligence (AI) that will — in the mid–21st century — re-fashion their human creators into demi-gods.

The concept of tech singularity isn’t mainstream yet. But Kurzweil’s measured, data-rich arguments have earned it a solid following among the techno-intelligentsia — including supporter Larry Page, Google co-founder.

Time


the LIST

feature list: the Time 100 :: The readers choice list.
deck: The 100 most influential people in the world.
year: 2011

  1. Jung Ji-Hoon — aka: Rain
  2. Jay Chou
  3. Susan Boyle
  4. Mahinda Rajapaksa
  5. Cheng Yen
  6. Beyonce Giselle Knowles Carter — aka: Beyonce
  7. Chris Colfer
  8. Christopher Eric Hitchens
  9. Bradley Manning
  10. Glenn Lee Beck
  11. Tawakul Karman
  12. Stefani Joanne Angelina Germanotta — aka: Lady Gaga
  13. Julian Paul Assange
  14. Ron Paul
  15. Aamir Khan
  16. the Daiichi power plant staff ~ of Fukushima, Japan
  17. Mohamed Bouazizi
  18. Han Han
  19. the Fabulous 14 state senators ~ of Wisconsin, US
  20. Robyn Rihanna Fenty — aka: Rihanna
  21. Dan Savage + Terry Miller
  22. Mohamed Elbaradei
  23. Alan Mulally
  24. Sarah Palin
  25. Gabrielle Giffords
  26. Wael Ghonim
  27. Mara Brock Akil
  28. Hu Jintao
  29. Mark Zuckerberg
  30. Ray Kurzweil
  31. Al-Jazeera
  32. Michelle Obama
  33. Michelle Rhee
  34. Betty White
  35. Andy Cohen
  36. Marc LaForce
  37. Steve Jobs
  38. Aung San Suu Kyi
  39. Craig J. Venter PhD + Daniel Gibson
  40. trapped miners ~ of Chile
  41. Stephen Hawking PhD
  42. Warren Buffett
  43. Cory Booker
  44. Hillary Clinton
  45. Michele Bachmann
  46. Barack Obama
  47. Elizabeth Warren
  48. Katy Perry
  49. Ryan Schreiber
  50. Christian Bale
  51. Lee Unkrich
  52. Johnny Depp
  53. Mark Bittman
  54. Jon Stewart + Stephen Colbert
  55. Conan O’Brien
  56. Florence + the Machine
  57. Geoffrey Canada
  58. Paul Ryan
  59. Carrie Fisher
  60. Marco Rubio
  61. George Clooney
  62. Mitt Romney
  63. Rafael Nadal
  64. Anna Bligh
  65. Salvatore Giunta
  66. Colin Firth
  67. Chris Christie
  68. Andy Carvin
  69. David Petraeus
  70. Jeff Bridges
  71. Clinton Cragg
  72. Vladimir Putin
  73. Scott Brown
  74. Kamala Harris
  75. Robert Gates
  76. Marisol Valles Garcia
  77. Lionel Messi
  78. Dick Costolo
  79. Roger Ebert
  80. Benjamin Netanyahu
  81. Charles Ferguson
  82. Cecile Richards
  83. Trey Parker + Matt Stone
  84. Oprah Winfrey
  85. Sandra Bullock
  86. Derrick Rossi
  87. Matt Damon
  88. Jamie Oliver
  89. David Drummond
  90. Yukio Edano
  91. Siddhartha Mukherjee
  92. James Franco
  93. Li Chengpeng
  94. Mumford + sons
  95. Rene Redzepi
  96. Natalie Portman
  97. V.S. Ramachandran
  98. Christopher Nolan
  99. Ricky Gervais
  100. Christine Loh + Joanne Ooi

— notes —

* aka = also known as
* AI = artificial intelligence
* US = the United States