“The restless genius” (Wall Street Journal) Ray Kurzweil comes to Cal Performances’ Wheeler Auditorium on Saturday, April 13 at 8:00 p.m. He has been nicknamed the “rightful heir to Thomas Edison” by Forbes for making cutting-edge technological advances including the first flatbed scanner, the first print-to-speech reading machine for the blind, and the first music synthesizer capable of recreating the grand piano.

In addition to his inventions, Kurzweil is known for his widely popular books, five of which have been bestsellers. PBS includes Kurzweil on its list of 16 revolutionaries who made America in the past two centuries. He will give audience members much to think about when he discusses his predictions for the future such as artificial intelligent with the capability of human emotions, nanotechnology to extend human lifespan and tools that will provide humans answers as quick as they think of the questions, among others. […]