I ahven't read Kurzweil's new book (nor his first, though I mean to get to them both), but if what my roommate is telling me, and what I've read about it online are accurate, then it's a pretty mindblowing read. Not only that, but if Kurzweil's predictiosn are true, heck even if he's too optimistic about the speed at whcih we reach singularity, most of the problems we whine about on blogs and protest and talk about will be irrelevent. Pollution? Send in the nanobots. Got cancer? Send in the nanobots. Medicare is growing really fast? Who cares, the economy is growing like 10% per year. Actually a lot of that stuff will be an anachronism. Who needs medicare when we're all healthy all the time? I need to read the book. So do you.