How to Create a Mind: The Secret of Human Thought Revealed

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

I’d like to express my gratitude to my wife, Sonya, for her loving patience through the vicissitudes of the creative process;

To my children, Ethan and Amy; my daughter-in-law, Rebecca; my sister, Enid; and my new grandson, Leo, for their love and inspiration;

To my mother, Hannah, for supporting my early ideas and inventions, which gave me the freedom to experiment at a young age, and for keeping my father alive during his long illness;

To my longtime editor at Viking, Rick Kot, for his leadership, steady and insightful guidance, and expert editing;

To Loretta Barrett, my literary agent for twenty years, for her astute and enthusiastic guidance;

To Aaron Kleiner, my long-term business partner, for his devoted collaboration for the past forty years;

To Amara Angelica for her devoted and exceptional research support;

To Sarah Black for her outstanding research insights and ideas;

To Laksman Frank for his excellent illustrations;

To Sarah Reed for her enthusiastic organizational support;

To Nanda Barker-Hook for her expert organization of my public events on this and other topics;

To Amy Kurzweil for her guidance on the craft of writing;

To Cindy Mason for her research support and ideas on AI and the mind-body connection;

To Dileep George for his discerning ideas and insightful discussions by e-mail and otherwise;

To Martine Rothblatt for her dedication to all of the technologies I discuss in the book and for our collaborations in developing technologies in these areas;

To the KurzweilAI.net team, who provided significant research and logistical support for this project, including Aaron Kleiner, Amara Angelica, Bob Beal, Casey Beal, Celia Black-Brooks, Cindy Mason, Denise Scutellaro, Joan Walsh, Giulio Prisco, Ken Linde, Laksman Frank, Maria Ellis, Nanda Barker-Hook, Sandi Dube, Sarah Black, Sarah Brangan, and Sarah Reed;

To the dedicated team at Viking Penguin for all of their thoughtful expertise, including Clare Ferraro (president), Carolyn Coleburn (director of publicity), Yen Cheong and Langan Kingsley (publicists), Nancy Sheppard (director of marketing), Bruce Giffords (production editor), Kyle Davis (editorial assistant), Fabiana Van Arsdell (production director), Roland Ottewell (copy editor), Daniel Lagin (designer), and Julia Thomas (jacket designer);

To my colleagues at Singularity University for their ideas, enthusiasm, and entrepreneurial energy;

To my colleagues who have provided inspired ideas reflected in this volume, including Barry Ptolemy, Ben Goertzel, David Dalrymple, Dileep George, Felicia Ptolemy, Francis Ganong, George Gilder, Larry Janowitch, Laura Deming, Lloyd Watts, Martine Rothblatt, Marvin Minsky, Mickey Singer, Peter Diamandis, Raj Reddy, Terry Grossman, Tomaso Poggio, and Vlad Sejnoha;

To my peer expert readers, including Ben Goertzel, David Gamez, Dean Kamen, Dileep George, Douglas Katz, Harry George, Lloyd Watts, Martine Rothblatt, Marvin Minsky, Paul Linsay, Rafael Reif, Raj Reddy, Randal Koene, Dr. Stephen Wolfram, and Tomaso Poggio;

To my in-house and lay readers whose names appear above;

And, finally, to all of the creative thinkers in the world who inspire me every day.