The Singularity Is Nearer: When We Merge with AI

by Ray Kurzweil

The nanotech revolution will bring this transformative shift into the physical world. In 2023 the value of physical products comes from many sources, especially raw materials, manufacturing labor, factory machine time, energy costs, and transportation. But convergent innovations will be dramatically reducing most of those costs in the coming decades. Raw materials will be cheaper to extract or synthesize with automation, robotics will replace expensive human labor, high-priced factory machines will themselves become cheaper, energy prices will fall due to better solar photovoltaics and energy storage (and eventually fusion), and autonomous electric vehicles will drive down transportation costs. As all these components of value become less expensive, the proportional value of the information contained in products will increase. Indeed, we are already going in that direction, as the “information content” of most products is rapidly increasing—and will ultimately get very close to 100 percent of their value.