| Director | Barry Ptolemy, Robert Barry Ptolemy |
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Raymond Kurzweil, noted inventor and futurist, is a man who refuses to accept the inevitability of physical death. He proposes that the Law of Accelerating Returns—the exponential increase in the growth of information technology—will result in a "singularity", a point where humanity and machines will merge, allowing one to transcend biological mortality: advances in genetics will provide the knowledge to reprogram biology, eliminate disease and stop the aging process; nanotechnology will keep humans healthy from the inside using robotic "red blood cells" and provide a human-computer interface within the brain; robotics, or artificial intelligence, will make superhuman intelligence possible, including the ability to back up the mind.
Most of the movie has an implication of a religious background, and is applying technology to accomplish the goals with what is considered to be "god like" powers, through interdependent connection. Kurzweil has been criticized as being a modern-day prophet, however the film describes a detailed list of his inventions. Ray's dedication to improving the blind's quality of life is displayed in the climax of the film, with his miniature blind reading tool. Ray speaks of emailing someone a blouse, or printing out a toaster utilizing nanotechnology. Eventually swarms of our nanotechnology will be sent by us into the universe to, as Kurzweil puts it, "wake up the universe".
Against this optimistic backdrop of human and machine evolution, concerns about Kurzweil's predictions are raised by technology experts, philosophers, and commentators. Physician William B. Hurlbut warns of tragedy and views Kurzweil's claims as lacking a more moderate approach necessitated by biological science. AI engineer Ben Goertzel champions the transhumanist vision, but acknowledges the possibility of a dystopian outcome. AI researcher Hugo de Garis warns of a coming "Artilect War", where god-like artificial intellects and those who want to build them, will fight against those who don't. Kevin Warwick, professor of Cybernetics at University of Reading, advocates the benefits of the singularity, but suggests the Terminator scenario could also occur, where humans become subservient to machine and live on a farm, and the singularity is the point where humans lose control to the intelligent machines. Warwick basically spells doom for anyone who is human after the singularity. Dean Kamen observes that advances in technology have finally made immortality a reasonable goal. At the end of the film, Kurzweil states, "if I was asked if god exists, I would say not yet."