For some reason, Ray Kurzweil and his predictions about the future have been coming up frequently in conversation lately (yes . . . I have nerdy friends.) In fact, I had a debate with a friend about his predictions last night over dinner while the rest of the table talked about something else (no doubt MUCH less interesting.)

I thought it might be enlightening to conduct a review of his primary predictions from his book “The Age of Spiritual Machines.” In it, he explores the trends in technology and makes some pretty startling recommendations about what will happen as technology innovation continues. He talks about how the difference between humans and machines will blur, how lifespans will expand greatly and how virtual reality may evolve to be the primary reality.

And, along the way, he makes convenient predictions for some key years . . . including 2009. In this blog series, I’ll look at each of his 2009 predictions (made originally 10 years ago in 1999) to see how well his ideas are holding up.