"Two billion years ago, our ancestors were microbes; a half-billion years ago, fish; a hundred million years ago, something like mice; ten million years ago, arboreal apes; and a million years ago, proto-humans puzzling out the taming of fire. Our evolutionary lineage is marked by mastery of change. In our time, the pace is quickening" – Carl Sagan, quoted in The Singularity is Near.

Kurzweil, in his chapter on technology evolution:
"evolution created humans, humans created technology, humans are now working with increasingly advanced technology to create new generations of technology. By the time of the Singularity, there won't be a distinction between humans and technology. This is not because humans will have become what we think of as machines today, but rather machines will have progressed to be like humans and beyond. Technology will be the metaphorical opposable thumb that enables our next step in evolution."

I don't usually go in for futurist writing. The predictions usually land wide of the mark and are no better than what you would hear at your local pub. In contrast, I am finding Kurweil's arguments (though I am just getting into the book) compelling, particularly as they dovetail with the leaping and bounding progress we're seeing in genomics & biotechnology. What I haven't seen yet is a convincing argument for his assumption of human/technology integration, rather than our technological creations simply leaving us behind, and pushing us from our niche, as the Neaderthals were pushed, by us.