One of the most prominent transhumanists is the inventor and philosopher Ray Kurzweil, currently Director of Engineering at Google, and popularizer of the concept of the technological “singularity” — a point he puts at around 2045, when artificial intelligence will outstrip human intelligence for the first time.

The predicted consequences of such a scenario vary wildly from the enslavement of humanity to a utopian world without war — or even, as a result of self-replicating nanotechnology, the transformation of the planet, or perhaps the entire universe, into something called “grey goo.”

Kurzweil, the award winning creator of the flatbed scanner, also believes he has a shot at immortality and intends to resurrect the dead, including his own father. “We will transcend all of the limitations of our biology,” he has said. “That is what it means to be human, to extend who we are.” […]