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1''The Singularity Is Near'' is a 2008 SpeculativeDocumentary directed by Ray Kurzweil, author of the [[FilmOfTheBook book of the same name]]. The film deals with artificial intelligence and the future of humanity, laying out Kurzweil's law of accelerating returns and what that could mean for technology, industry, and the definition of what it means to be human.
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3The film also features a sci-fi storyline about an artificial intelligence named Ramona, and the changes she undergoes from her creation to becoming completely self-aware. She also must fight for her right to be recognized as a conscious person.
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6!!''The Singularity Is Near'' contains examples of:
7* TwentyMinutesIntoTheFuture: The film talks about the technological advances that will be made in the next twenty years. The Ramona side plot follows this timeline to the first legally sentient AI.
8* AIIsACrapshoot: Ramona is viewed as a threat by the government, who seek to delete her. She is forced to file for federal recognition as a sentient entity.
9* ArtificialIntelligence: Has advanced so far that one specimen seeks recognition as a person in the eyes of the law.
10* BenevolentAI: Ramona, as demonstrated by the nanobots incident.
11* {{Cyberspace}}: Much of the Ramona side-plot takes place here.
12* DeusEstMachina
13--> '''Ray Kurzweil:''' If you asked me "Does God exist?", I would say "Not yet."
14* DigitalAvatar: Since Ramona is a virtual consciousness, the digital avatar is her actual body.
15* DoAndroidsDream: Examined with the evolution of A.I. Ramona, until she attempts to prove herself a sentient person in a court of law.
16* ExpositionDiagram: The movie and especially the book uses graphs to show how the growth of technology is exponential.
17* FilmOfTheBook: The book is much more [[InfoDump information dense]] and goes into deeper detail regarding the implications (technical, biological, social, etc.) of accelerating technology.
18* GreyGoo: A contingent of nanobots begins to replicate out of control, only stopped when Ramona implants a virus into their programming.
19* HumansAreSpecial:
20** In order to avoid deletion, Ramona has to prove herself at least as human as other Turing Test participants.
21** Ultimately subverted, since it's not our humanness that makes us special, but our complex brains which allow sentience.
22* InfoDump: The book is much more detailed than the movie, going into great detail about the potential of accelerating technology on many aspects of human life.
23* KissMeImVirtual: Kurzweil predicts this to happen once human-level artificial intelligence is achieved.
24* {{Nanomachines}}: A group of them almost destroy the world, only averted by Ramona reprogramming them.
25* PostCyberpunk: The world portrayed in the Ramona side-plot. Technology has become ubiquitous and much more capable than anything today.
26* RobotGirl: ''Virtual'' girl, Ramona.
27* TheSingularity: The entire focus of the film, and its effect on different aspects of life.
28* SpeculativeDocumentary: Ray Kurzweil uses the acceleration of technology to project where we will be in just a few decades. These inferred capabilities are the basis of the parallel Ramona story.
29* {{Transhuman}}: An underlying connotation of The Singularity, once technology is used to enhance normal human capabilities.

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