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National Inventor Hall of Fame Acceptance Remarks
The National Inventors Hall of Fame (NIHF) inducted Ray Kurzweil on Sept. 21, 2002. Sponsored by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office and Hewlett-Packard, the ceremony recognized Kurzweil for the Kurzweil Reading Machine and a lifetime of invention, including the first "omni-font" optical character recognition (OCR), the first CCD flat-bed scanner, the first full text-to-speech synthesizer, the first realistic-sounding electronic music synthesizer, and the first commercially marketed large-vocabulary speech recognition.
How are humans different from other animals?
The answer is: we invent. And I mean invention here in the broadest
sense, to include all human knowledge: language, music, art, and,
of course, technology.
Other animals use tools, but these tools don't evolve. Only humans
have a knowledge base that we pass from generation to generation,
knowledge that is growing in size at an exponential rate.
Evolution works through indirection. It creates an innovation,
and that capability is then used to create the next stage. For example,
evolution created homo sapiens, and our species then ushered in
the next stage, which is human technology. Technology is, therefore,
a continuation of biological evolution carried on through other
means. Technology is evolution's cutting edge.
We see the same phenomenon in technology itself: one stage of invention
is used to create the next. We use computers, for example, to design
more powerful computers.
Hence the pace of progress accelerates. According to my models,
we're doubling the paradigm shift rate every decade. So the 21st
century will be equivalent to 20,000 years of progress at today's
rate of progress.
What is unique about the human species is precisely this: we expand
our horizons. We've more than doubled our life expectancy in the
last 200 years. We didn't stay on the ground, or even on our planet.
We are now expanding beyond the limitations of our biology.
It is, therefore, a special pleasure and a profound honor for me
to be inducted into the Inventor Hall of Fame. I would like to express
my deep appreciation to my wife, Sonya, who has supported all of
my strange ideas for the past three decades; my children, Ethan
and Amy, who have inspired me and who will inherit the remarkable
world that lies ahead; my partner, Aaron Kleiner, with whom I've
collaborated through thirty years and nine companies; and all of
the many brilliant and devoted scientists, engineers, and business
professionals who have contributed in every possible way to my being
here this evening.
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