I recently finished reading The Singularity is Near by Ray Kurzweil.  Ray predicts that human culture will be unrecognizably transformed by exponential technological paradigm shifts.  He talks about a lot of surprising research that is happening right now such as accurate modeling of parts of the brain, functioning medical nanobots, and evolutionary algorithms designing jet engines.  He builds a thoughtful and logical case that Genetics, nanotechnology, and robotics (strong A.I.) will combine to make virtual reality indistinguishable from reality, destroy scarcity economics, allow humans to “live” forever and so much more.  Sign me up!

I am also struggling through The Secret History of the World (as Laid Down by the Secret Societies) by Mark Booth.  I’ll call it a rambling description of the “esoteric tradition” (worldview of freemasonry, skull and bones, etc.) as told by an informed outsider.  The history described is really a pan-mythological mash-up that reads as though every world religion was combined and passed down through oral tradition.  It shows us a world in which matter slowly hardens over time, humans have a vegetable essence, and pineal glands once protruded from our heads like unicorn horns allowing man to interact with Gods and spirits.  Blah.