Prologue. The power of ideas -- 1. The six epochs -- The intuitive linear view versus the historical exponential view -- The six epochs -- Epoch one : physics and chemistry -- Epoch two : biology and DNA -- Epoch three : brains -- Epoch four : technology -- Epoch five : the merger of human technology with human intelligence -- Epoch six : the universe wakes up -- The singularity is near -- 2. A theory of technology evolution : the law of accelerating returns -- The nature of order -- The life cycle of a paradigm -- Fractal designs -- Farsighted evolution -- The S-curve of a technology as expressed in its life cycle -- The life cycle of a technology -- From goat skins to downloads -- Moore's law and beyond -- Moore's law : self-fulfilling prophecy? -- The fifth paradigm -- Fractal dimensions and the brain -- DNA sequencing, memory, communications, the Internet, and miniaturization -- Information, order, and evolution : the insights from Wolfram and Fredkin's cellular automata -- Can we evolve artificial intelligence from simple rules? -- The singularity as economic imperative -- Get eighty trillion dollars, limited time only -- Deflation ... a bad thing? -- 3. Achieving the computational capacity of the human brain -- The sixth paradigm of computing technology : three dimensional -- Molecular computing and emerging computational technologies -- The bridge to 3-D molecular computing -- Nanotubes are still the best bet -- Computing with molecules -- Self-assembly -- Emulating biology -- Computing with DNA -- Computing with spin -- Computing with light -- Quantum computing -- The computational capacity of the human brain -- Accelerating the availability of human-level personal computing -- Human memory capacity -- The limits of computation -- Reversible computing -- How smart is a rock? -- The limits of nanocomputing -- Setting a date for the singularity -- Memory and computational efficiency : a rock versus a human brain -- Going beyond the ultimate : pico- and femtotechnology and bending the speed of light -- Going back in time --

4. Achieving the software of human intelligence : how to reverse engineer the human brain -- Reverse engineering the brain : an overview of the task -- New brain-imaging and modeling tools -- The software of the brain -- Analytic versus neuromorphic modeling of the brain -- How complex is the brain? -- Modeling the brain -- Peeling the onion -- Is the human brain different from a computer? -- The brain's circuits are very slow -- But it's massively parallel -- The brain combines analog and digital phenomena -- The brain rewires itself -- Most of the details in the brain are random -- The brain uses emergent properties -- The brain is imperfect -- We contradict ourselves -- The brain uses evolution -- The patterns are important -- The brain is holographic -- The brain is deeply connected -- The brain does have an architecture of regions -- The design of a brain region is simpler than the design of a neuron -- Trying to understand our own thinking : the accelerating pace of research -- Peering into the brain -- New tools for scanning the brain -- Improving resolution -- Scanning using nanobots -- Building models of the brain -- Subneural models : synapses and spines -- Neuron models -- Electronic neurons -- Brain plasticity -- Modeling regions of the brain -- A neuromorphic model : the cerebellum -- Another example : Watts's model of the auditory regions -- The visual system -- Other works in progress : an artificial hippocampus and an artificial olivocerebellar region -- Understanding higher-level functions : imitation, prediction, and emotion -- Interfacing the brain and machines -- The accelerating pace of reverse engineering the brain -- The scalability of human intelligence -- Uploading the human brain --

5. GNR : three overlapping revolutions -- Genetics : the intersection of information and biology -- Life's computer -- Designer baby boomers -- Can we really live forever? -- RNAi (RNA interference) -- Cell therapies -- Gene chips -- Somatic gene therapy -- Reversing degenerative disease -- Combating heart disease -- Overcoming cancer -- Reversing aging -- DNA mutations -- Toxic cells -- Mitochondrial mutations -- Intracellular aggregates -- Extracellular aggregates -- Cell loss and atrophy -- Human cloning : the least interesting application of cloning technology -- Why is cloning important? -- Preserving endangered species and restoring extinct ones -- Therapeutic cloning -- Human somatic-cell engineering -- Solving world hunger -- Human cloning revisited -- Nanotechnology : the intersection of information and the physical world -- The biological assembler -- Upgrading the cell nucleus with a nanocomputer and nanobot -- Fat and sticky fingers -- The debate heats up -- Early adopters -- Powering the singularity -- Applications of nanotechnology to the environment -- Nanobots in the bloodstream -- Robotics : strong AI -- Runaway AI -- The AI winter -- AI's toolkit -- Expert systems -- Bayesian nets -- Markov models -- Neural nets -- Genetic algorithms (GAs) -- Recursive search -- Deep Fritz draws : are humans getting smarter, or are computers getting stupider? -- The specialized-hardware advantage -- Deep Blue versus Deep Fritz -- Significant software gains -- Are human chess players doomed? -- Combining methods -- A narrow AI sampler -- Military and intelligence -- Space exploration -- Medicine -- Science and math -- Business, finance, and manufacturing -- Manufacturing and robotics -- Speech and language -- Entertainment and sports -- Strong AI --

6. The impact ... -- A panoply of impacts -- ... on the human body -- A new way of eating -- Redesigning the digestive system -- Programmable blood -- Have a heart, or not -- So what's left? -- Redesigning the human brain -- We are becoming cyborgs -- Human body version 3.0 -- ... on the human brain -- The 2010 scenario -- The 2030 scenario -- Become someone else -- Experience beamers -- Expand your mind -- ... on human longevity -- The transformation to nonbiological experiences -- The longevity of information -- ... on warfare : the remote, robotic, robust, size-reduced, virtual-reality paradigm -- Smart dust -- Nanoweapons -- Smart weapons -- VR -- ... on learning -- ... on work -- Intellectual property -- Decentralization -- ... on play -- ... on the intelligent destiny of the cosmos : why we are probably alone in the universe -- The Drake equation -- The limits of computation revisited -- Bigger or smaller -- Expanding beyond the solar system -- The speed of light revisited -- Wormholes -- Changing the speed of light -- The Fermi paradox revisited -- The anthropic principle revisited -- The multiverse -- Evolving universes -- Intelligence as the destiny of the universe -- The ultimate utility function -- Hawking radiation -- Why intelligence is more powerful than physics -- A universe-scale computer -- The holographic universe -- 7. Ich bin ein singularitarian -- Still human? -- The vexing question of consciousness -- Who am I? : what am I? -- The singularity as transcendence --

8. The deeply intertwined promise and peril of GNR -- Intertwined benefits ... -- ... and dangers -- A panoply of existential risks -- The precautionary principle -- The smaller the interaction, the larger the explosive potential -- Our simulation is turned off -- Crashing the party -- GNR : the proper focus of promise versus peril -- The inevitability of a transformed future -- Totalitarian relinquishment -- Preparing the defenses -- Strong AI -- Returning to the past? -- The idea of relinquishment -- Broad relinquishment -- Fine-grained relinquishment -- Dealing with abuse -- The threat from fundamentalism -- Fundamentalist humanism -- Development of defensive technologies and the impact of regulation -- Protection from "unfriendly" strong AI -- Decentralization -- Distributed energy -- Civil liberties in an age of asymmetric warfare -- A program for GNR defense -- 9. Response to critics -- A panoply of criticisms -- The criticism from incredulity -- The criticism from Malthus -- Exponential trends don't last forever -- A virtually unlimited limit -- The criticism from software -- Software stability -- Software responsiveness -- Software price-performance -- Software development productivity -- Software complexity -- Accelerating algorithms -- The ultimate source of intelligent algorithms -- The criticism from analog processing -- The criticism from the complexity of neural processing -- Brain complexity -- A computer's inherent dualism -- Levels and loops -- The criticism from microtubules and quantum computing -- The criticism from the Church-Turing thesis -- The criticism from failure rates -- The criticism from "lock-in" -- The criticism from ontology : can a computer be conscious? -- Kurzweil's Chinese room -- The criticism from the rich-poor divide -- The criticism from the likelihood of government regulation -- The unbearable slowness of social institutions -- The criticism from theism -- The criticism from holism -- Epilogue. How singular? : human centrality -- Resources and contact information -- Appendix. The law of accelerating returns revisited.