He might not be the next Roger Ebert, but that didnt stop futurist and artificial-intelligence pioneer Ray Kurzweil from giving Spike Jonzes Oscar-nominated and slightly satirical sci-fi dramedyHera strongly positive review on cinematic if not all technology grounds. This is a breakthrough concept in cinematic futurism in the way thatThe Matrixpresented a realistic vision that virtual reality will ultimately be as real as, well, real reality, Kurzweil writes in a review posted recently on his site KurzweilAI.net. Kurzweil, now Googles director of engineering, is author of books such asThe Singularity Is Nearand The Age of Spiritual Machines and subject of the documentaryTranscendent Man, all of which detail Kurzweils vision of a future when computer intelligence becomes self aware and merges more fully with human intelligence.

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Overall, Kurzweil calls the film very successful, and says it does a better job than most predecessors, such as Steven SpielbergsA.I.,in portraying a plausible future where a human and an artificial intelligence could have some sort of relationship.

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InHer,Joaquin Phoenixs lonely and depressed lead character Theodore becomes enamored with the operating system, which he dubs Samantha, that he has installed on his computer. Samantha, seductively voiced by Scarlett Johansson, becomes more and more emotionally involved with Theodore, even as Samantha grows more sophisticated and independent.

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Kurzweils caveats are mostly about the timing and rapidity of some technology developments portrayed in Jonzes slightly-in-the-future world.

His biggest beef, though,is a familiar one to his longtime followers, revolving around the films portrayal of artificial intelligence as a stand-alone creation. Samantha and Theodore have issues, despite some creative efforts to get around it, with the fact that one of them has a body and the other one doesnt, and one of them is developing rapidly into something new.

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But in the future, Kurzweil says, that wont be a problem. An AI, he says, wont be over there, separate from and disconnected from and eventually superior to humans, but part of and merged with them.

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Artificial Intelligence Pioneer Gives Her A Thumbs Up