The Singularity Is Nearer: When We Merge with AI

by Ray Kurzweil

At the beginning of the nineteenth century, the United States was an overwhelmingly agricultural society. As more settlers poured into the young nation and moved west of the Appalachians, the percentage of Americans employed in farming actually rose, peaking at over 80 percent.[40] But in the 1820s this proportion began a rapid decline as improved agricultural technology made it possible for fewer farmers to feed more people. Initially this was the result of a combination of improved scientific methods of plant breeding and better crop rotation systems.[41] As the Industrial Revolution progressed, mechanical farming implements became major labor-saving devices.[42] The year 1890 marked the first time a majority of Americans did not work on farms, and the trend was accelerating sharply by 1910 as tractors powered by steam or internal combustion engines replaced slow and inefficient work animals.[43]