Speaker Profile: Ray Kurzweil

This week, we're taking a look at one of today's most successful inventors, Ray Kuzweil. Ray will be joining us at the PDMA/IIR sponsored Front End of Innovation Conference May 19th through the 22nd at the Boston World Trade Center and Seaport Hotel. Kurzweil will be presenting the keynote address 'The Acceleration of Technology in the 21st Century: The Impact on Business, the Economy and Society.'
Ray Kurzweil is known as one of today's brightest inventors, and even been hailed as today's Thomas Edison (Source). He has won numerous awards and one of the most prestigious being the National Medial of Technology in 1999. In 2002, he was inducted into the Inventors Hall of Fame. He has five books The Singularity is Near : When Humans Transcend Biology, The Age of Spiritual Machines : When Computers Exceed Human Intelligence, Fantastic Voyage : Live Long Enough to Live Forever, 10% Solution for a Healthy Life : How to Reduce Fat in Your Diet and Eliminate Virtually All Risk of Heart Disease and Cancer, and The Age of Intellectual Machines.
Some of the inventions Ray is known for are a reading machine for the blind, a CCD Flashbed Scanner, and the electronic synthesizer (Wikipedia). Ray's personal website, KurzweilAI.Net, is a site dedicated to keeping the scientific would up to date with the newest information in the scientific world.
One of the most innovative ideas Ray is known for is his quest to find immortality. He believes that we are within the grasps of technology, but we have to first understand the full engineering of both our human body and brain. There is a great interview with Ray on that topic at What is Enlightenment Magazine. You can also read a collection of Ray's essays here.
We invite you to come see this world class innovator at our conference. We hope you can join us for the Ray Kruzweil keynote speech on May 21st at the Front End of Innovation Conference. Next week, we'll profile Dean Kamen, who is known for his extensive work with robots that work to increase the standard of living for many Americans.