Editing Ray Kurzweil (section)

===Early life===
Kurzweil grew up in [[Queens]], New York City. He attended NYC Public Education Kingsbury Elementary School PS188. He was born to secular [[Jews|Jewish]] parents who had emigrated from [[Austria]] just before the onset of [[World War II]]. Through [[Unitarian Universalism]] he was exposed to a diversity of religious faiths during his upbringing.<ref>{{cite book | last=Peragine | first=Michael | date=2013 <!-- 2013-03-13 --> | title=The universal mind: The evolution of machine intelligence and human psychology | publication-place=San Diego | publisher=Xiphias Press | language=en | asin=B00BQ47APM | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Dvb0DAAAQBAJ&pg=PT106 | quote=He was born to secular Jewish parents who had escaped Austria just before the onset of World War II. He was exposed via [[Unitarian Universalism]] to a diversity of religious faiths during his upbringing.}}</ref><ref>{{Cite magazine | url=https://www.thekurzweillibrary.com/playboy-re-invent-yourself-the-playboy-interview <!-- http://www.kurzweilai.net/reinvent-yourself-the-playboy-interview-with-ray-kurzweil --> | last=Hochman | first=David | date=April 19, 2016 | title=Reinvent yourself: the Playboy interview with Ray Kurzweil | type=Interview | magazine=Playboy |language=en-US|access-date=2024-04-11}}</ref> The Unitarian church has a philosophy that there are many paths to the truth: his religious education consisted of studying one religion for six months before moving on to another.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Kurzweil|first=Ray|title=The Singularity Is Near: When Humans Transcend Biology|publisher=Viking|year=2005|isbn=978-0-670-03384-3|location=United States|pages=Prologue}}</ref> His father, Fredric, was a concert pianist, a noted conductor and a music educator. His mother, Hannah, was a visual artist. He is the elder of two children; his sister Enid, an accountant in [[Santa Barbara, California|Santa Barbara]], is six years his junior.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2000-06-17 |title=Ray Kurzweil |url=https://achievement.org/achiever/ray-kurzwell/#interview |access-date=2024-10-19 |website=Academy of Achievement |language=en-US}}</ref>

Ray Kurzweil decided at age five that he wanted to be an inventor.<ref>{{cite magazine | last=Rifken | first=Glen | date=March 18, 1991 | title=Raymond Kurzweil | type=Interview | magazine=Computerworld: The newsweekly of information systems management | volume=25 | number=11 | pages=75f | publisher=International Data Group | issn=0010-4841 | language=en | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=vfztUIpZm7UC&pg=PA75}}</ref> As a young boy, he had an inventory of parts from various construction toys he had been given and old electronic gadgets he had collected from neighbors. In his youth, Kurzweil was an avid reader of science fiction. At age eight, nine, and ten, he read the entire [[Tom Swift Jr]]. series. At age seven or eight, he built a robotic puppet theater and robotic game. He was involved with computers by age 12 (in 1960), when only a dozen computers existed in New York City, and built computing devices and statistical programs for the predecessor of Head Start.<ref>{{cite AV media | people=Ingrid Wickelgren (host), Ray Kurzweil (guest) | date=November 20, 2012 | title=Ray Kurzweil | work=[[After Words]] | publication-place=Washington, DC | publisher=National Cable Satellite Corporation | url=https://www.c-span.org/video/?309044-1/after-words-ray-kurzweil <!-- http://www.c-spanvideo.org/program/309044-1 --> | access-date=11 April 2024}}</ref><ref>{{cite web | last=Wickelgren | first=Ingrid | date=11 December 2012 | title=On TV, Ray Kurzweil tells me how to build a brain | type=Blog post | website=Scientific American | url=https://www.scientificamerican.com/blog/streams-of-consciousness/on-tv-ray-kurzweil-tells-me-how-to-build-a-brain/ | access-date=11 April 2024}}</ref> At 14, Kurzweil wrote a paper detailing his theory of the [[neocortex]].<ref>{{cite AV media | people=Diane Rehm (host), Ray Kurzweil (guest) | date=November 27, 2012 | title=Ray Kurzweil: "How to Create a Mind: The Secret of Human Thought Revealed" | work=[[The Diane Rehm Show]] | publication-place=Washington, DC | publisher=WAMU | url=https://dianerehm.org/shows/2012-11-27/ray-kurzweil-how-create-mind-secret-human-thought-revealed/transcript | access-date=11 April 2024}}</ref> His parents were involved with the arts, and he is quoted in the documentary ''[[Transcendent Man]]''<ref name="transcendentman.com">{{cite web |url=https://transcendentman.com/mind-boggling-technological-singularity-defined/ |title=Answering all your questions about The Technological Singularity |access-date=October 3, 2017 | website=Transcendent man: Prepare to evolve | date=2017-09-01 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171003225351/https://transcendentman.com/mind-boggling-technological-singularity-defined/ | archive-date=2017-10-03}}</ref> as saying that the household always discussed the future and technology.<ref>{{cite AV media | title=Transcendent Man}}</ref>

Kurzweil attended [[Martin Van Buren High School]]. During class, he often held onto his class textbooks to seemingly participate while focusing on his own projects hidden behind the book. His uncle, an engineer at [[Bell Labs]], taught Kurzweil the basics of [[computer science]].<ref>{{cite web |title=Inventor of the Week |url=http://web.mit.edu/invent/iow/kurzweil.html |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140102111050/http://web.mit.edu/invent/iow/kurzweil.html |archive-date=2014-01-02 |access-date=2011-04-21 |publisher=Web.mit.edu}}</ref> In 1963, at 15, he wrote his first computer program.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.kurzweilai.net/meme/frame.html?main=%2Farticles%2Fart0467.html |title=KurzweilAI.net |publisher=KurzweilAI.net |access-date=2011-04-21 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20050222180825/http://www.kurzweilai.net/meme/frame.html?main=%2Farticles%2Fart0467.html |archive-date=2005-02-22 }}</ref> 

Kurzweil created pattern-recognition software that analyzed the works of classical composers, then synthesized its own songs in similar styles. In 1965 he was invited to appear on the [[CBS]] television program ''[[I've Got a Secret]]'',<ref>{{cite web|title= Ray Kurzweil Biography and Interview |website=www.achievement.org|publisher=[[American Academy of Achievement]]|url=    https://achievement.org/achiever/ray-kurzwell/#interview}}</ref> where he performed a piano piece composed by a computer he had built.<ref name="booktv">{{cite video |people=Pedro Echevarria (host), Ray Kurzweil (guest) | url=http://www.c-span.org/video/?194500-1/depth-ray-kurzweil |title=Ray Kurzweil |work=[[In Depth]] | publisher=[[Book TV]] |date=November 5, 2006 |access-date=2015-04-22}}</ref> Later in the year, he won first prize in the International Science Fair for the invention;<ref name="ssp">{{cite web |url=http://www.societyforscience.org/Page.aspx?pid=261 |title=Alumni Honors |publisher=Society for Science and the Public |access-date=2010-05-18 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120729231138/http://www.societyforscience.org/page.aspx?pid=261 |archive-date=2012-07-29 }}</ref> his submission to [[Intel Science Talent Search|Westinghouse Talent Search]] of his first computer program alongside several other projects resulted in his being one of the contest's national winners, for which President [[Lyndon B. Johnson]] personally congratulated him during a [[White House]] ceremony. The experiences impressed upon Kurzweil the belief that nearly any problem could be overcome.<ref>{{cite magazine |url=https://techland.time.com/2010/04/02/an-interview-with-ray-kurzweil/ |title=An Interview With Ray Kurzweil | first=Doug | last=Aamoth |publisher=Time Inc. |magazine=Time |date=April 2, 2010 |access-date=September 25, 2014}}</ref>