Transcend: Nine Steps to Living Well Forever by Ray Kurzweil

Transcend: Nine Steps to Living Well Forever Reviews

• 
  DJ

  Biological forms, I have grave news. Our worst fears have been confirmed... the most viable current path to a longer, healthier, and happier life involves vegetables, exercise, sleep, and vitamins. And unlike most roads in the US, there's not a single McDonalds or Starbucks along the way...
  
  The main thesis of this book is: the human race is pretty damn close to crafting technologies that will overcome our biological shortcomings and allow us to live forever as machine-enhanced androids stuffed with nanobots. However, we still need a few decades to figure this stuff out, so if you stuff your face with meatshakes, eclairs, and potato chips, you and your clogged arteries will just miss the immortality boat and you'll go down in history as one of those "fat fools who could've had thousands of years of interesting things to do but just had to have another Pringle."
  
  If you've already read
  Fantastic Voyage, much of this will be repetitive. However, whereas
  Fantastic Voyage focused on providing evidence that immortality might be on our horizon and arguing that a few small lifestyle changes might help you one day join the ranks of the androids, Transcend is the 'How To' guide of exactly those changes should be. From baseline testing to supplementation, nutrition, and exercise, with this book's help you can be a pill-popping, vegetable-chomping gym rat and future android in no time! Much of the nutrition and exercise info can be found in
  Fantastic Voyage, but I bought this book mostly for the updated info on supplements and the thorough discussion of good baseline tests to run (what's the point of trying to keep your machine well-oiled if you never check the gauges?).
  
  I suspect I'm the only human being below the age of 50 who will read this book (or who thinks about his "aging" 22-year old body), so I'll generously offer a CliffNotes version of the book for any young lad or lass passing over this review:
  
  
  Drop your candy, packaged snacks, and soda habit (yes, 'cold turkey' is quite effective and you'll be fine in a week)
  Start eating vegetables, beans, nuts, fish, lean meats, eggs, and fruits (just go wild on the veggies; seriously, eat as much as you want)
  ...but generally just eat less calories (caloric restriction is the most well-established current method of extending lifespan)
  Exercise daily (sports, jogging, swimming, alligator-wrestling, whatever keeps you excited enough that you can do it for 30-60 minutes)
  Add some strength and flexibility training (~3 times/week should be enough for good hormonal health and stress relief)
  Sleep well and regularly (amount varies by person but if you need an alarm to wake up, that's a good sign you're not sleeping enough)
  Have sex or masturbate 2-3 times a week (not that you need the encouragement, but it's good for your hormonal health)
  Take a multivitamin, fish oil, and vitamin D
  Take vacations, talk with friends and family often, get a hobby, try meditation, and make time for the things you enjoy (all work and no play makes Jack a depressed, diabetic heart transplant candidate)
  Get periodic physicals and nutritional tests to ensure all of the above is actually doing something
  
  
  Congratulations! If you do all of the above, I look forward to mind-melding, exploring augmented reality, and not having diabetes with you in our android futures! (If not, I'm sorry. You will die.)
• 
  Ryan

  I've read several books on fitness and nutrition and this has been one of my favorites. The basic premise is that medical technology is advancing so rapidly that if you can live long enough to reach the major breakthroughs of the next few decades, you can live forever.
  
  Although their predictions for immortality seem quite a bit too optimistic for me, it's still very interesting. The majority of the book is about how to stay healthy and actually live long enough to reap the benefits of the future.
  
  The book is definitely intended for an older audience (probably someone in their 60s is the target audience). I'm 27 and most of the charts and recommendations didn't even begin until age 30. Regardless, they give excellent advice for staying healthy and I intend to implement a number of new ideas.
• 
  Bruce

  The book has a lot of information on supplements and behaviors that might be useful in extending life. However, I've come across two news releases in the past few days which have denounced the value of supplements, cautioning that our "supplement obsession" could actually be harmful. One study was a meta-analysis of the effects of Vitamin D for bone health in seniors. It concluded that there is no benefit at all from Vitamin D. Another study was on multivitamins, again a meta-analysis, and it concluded that there is no demonstrable benefit in taking such vitamins.
  
  On one hand, I admire Kurzweil's commitment to extending life. On the other hand, I can't help but thinking that anyone who takes 250 vitamins per day, as he does, is a nut case.
  
  The authors would have done well to have omitted the amateur science fiction dialogue.
• 
  Nikki

  Ray Kurzweil, famous technologist and futurist, believes that by the end of this century the human lifespan will have increased to 500 years due to advances in technology. This book is a health and lifestyle book designed to show you what to do now so that you can survive long enough to make it until those advances come about (he claims 2029 is the year!) He's a brilliant guy, I have no doubt, however this book didn't have anything new to say. If you read health books you're already aware that you should be exercising rigorously, eating mostly green plants, restricting caloric intake and de-stressing. There you go!
• 
  Mark Chadbourn

  Want to live forever? This is the book for you. That may sound like a fatuous statement to accompany some woolly, magical thinking guide, but everything here is based on the latest scientific studies (all referenced, if you don't want to take the authors at their word). Indeed, Kurzweil is a leading scientific philosopher, best-known for his writing on the coming technology singularity. Grossman is a doctor.
  
  How can you live forever? It's a simple equation. In the 2020s, biotech advances will extend lifespans. In the 2030s, nanotech advances will help your body repair itself ad infinitum. This book is a guide to everything you can do yourself to help you live just long enough to reach the first 'bridge', which should then carry you through to the second. Simple. Here is all the latest thinking on nutrition, exercise, relaxation, supplements, calorie reduction, new technologies and more - and not just what works, but why it works. You will also find some of the surprising, hidden things that are slowly killing you. And if you think you know all this stuff, I'm betting that you don't.
  
  None of the advice is onerous. Little changes have big consequences. Even if you're a confirmed cynic, making those changes will undoubtedly make you feel better, so what's to lose?
  
  If you don't consider yourself 'scientifically minded', don't worry - all the scientific evidence here isn't hard-going. The two authors have a lively writing style and communicate detailed information in an easily-digested form. This is a 'how to...' guide, recommended for everyone. Philosophically, it'll make you look at the world around you in a different way. And as a template for really improving your day-to-day existence, it's unparalleled.
• 
  Dan

  Kurzweil and I have birthdates that are within one month of each other. He is working on staying around long enough to make use of new technologies that will prolong life. I would like to do the same.
  
  The book is quite inspirational. We have all grown up with the idea that death is inevitable. Could there be an escape from death? Ray Kurzweil says "Yes."
  
  The technologies for life extension described by Kurzweil sound like science fiction. I can remember when the Dick Tracy wristwatch was science fiction, but we have far surpased that level of technology today.
  
  Kurzweil forsees nanobots which travel in our bloodstream making repairs where needed. The nanobots will detect and eliminate cancer. Such devices are not present today, but Kurzweil says they are coming, if we can live long enough to get there. That is the purpose of this book. It is a guide to how to live long enough to get to the point where these life-extending technologies will be available.
  
  There are a number of recipes in the middle of the book for healthy eating. There are also a number of medical tests which the authors (Kurzweil and Grossman) recommend, some of which which are not always suggested by your doctor. A number of links to web sites for further reading are provided.
• 
  Angela Shurina

  The book is a good source of actionable information to improve health and longevity. I love that there is a system. Each chapter has its purpose and a plan for us readers to start applying the information. Lots of science also (would overwhelm anyone who is not into science and didn't learn how to scan and skip).
  It talks about all the basics and some advanced things. Makes you aware of where health/longevity technology is going.
  Why 4 stars? I guess I expected more from Ray Kurzweil. Something extraordinary. And that was just a good about on holistic health with scientific approach. Very well-structured.
• 
  Carlos

  I love how Kurzweil explains the complex in such a beautifully simplistic manner. In this book he outlines a plan to hack our biochemical processes to live long enough to reap the benefits of future technology that'll allow us to live forever.
• 
  Pavel

  Полезна всем, кто хочет систематизировать знания о собственном организме и здоровье а так-же узнать взгляды на распространенные болезни сегодняшней зарубежной медицины и что нас ожидает в ближайшие годы. Мастрид всем, кто еще не загубил свое здоровье.
• 
  Stepan

  В целом, полезно.
  Сказки про будущее можно пропускать.
• 
  Simon Hohenadl

  Great overview and practical guide of longevity.
  Unfortunately, it is from 2008 and feels outdated. Newer research as found in
  How Not to Die: Discover the Foods Scientifically Proven to Prevent and Reverse Disease and
  Lifespan: Why We Age—and Why We Don't Have To is not incorporated.
  The online questionnaire that the reader is referred to was not helpful to me and seemed more like an entry into Kurzweil's and Grossman's online supplement shop.
  I was also missing an audio version.
• 
  Vinícius Landvoigt

  The philosophy behind this (in essence, transhumanism) is very exciting, the goal, noble, but most of the content is just regular healthy lifestyle practices, with some inovative and insightful advices here and there.
  Something that bothered me, though, were recommendations that seemed to lack scientific background, and, thus, were given with the justification of "we feel this good"/"we believe that is bad".
  But, overall, It is a good book and can be very informative depending on your background.
• 
  Jaroslav Tuček

  Having read and enjoyed Fantastic Voyage, I expected a lot from Transcend. In several aspects, the book is a marked improvement upon its predecessor - gone are many of the controversial suggestions (eg. alkaline water), gone is Kurzweil's crazy-overhead supplementation regimen, the exercise suggestions have been improved (albeit not much) upon the ridiculous recommendation to stick with fast walking. Sadly, the authors did not leave out their futuristic visions - I certainly did not appreciate them in a "how-to" book - neither did they abandon their claims about medical science now being an information technology. Someone with Kurzweil's background should understand concepts like intractability. Doubling computing power will not allow us to double what we can achieve with that power - the authors' 2023 and 2034 vignettes read the same way AI researchers talked in the 1950s - 1960s ... and where are we now, do we have strong AI yet?
  
  If you can pass over the futuristic parts of the book, you get a decent introduction to a holistic medicine/disease prevention lifestyle. Note that the material is very basic, readers with good understanding of nutrition, exercise and preventive medicine will not learn anything new here. However, the book is easy to recommend to readers who have been neglecting their health for most of their lives and need a quick, solid foundation in the topic.
• 
  Romans Karpelcevs

  This is the first life style/nutrition/medical book I've read and I found it very useful. A lot of actual actionable advice on long-term health improvements with reasonable explanations.
  Of course, I hardly believe in the overall premise of living forever (or even more than 100 years), and I found their faith in medical + hitech science that will be discovering and using so many new tech in medicine so quickly pretty delusional. It takes decades for govenments to approve things even after successful studies, and nanorobots in bloodstream in 2034 is just unreal. Still, it was a great read with hopes for next generations (just not mine, except for some veeeery wealthy individuals, maybe).
  
  The only thing I didn't like was their suggestion to eat so many dietary supplements such as vitamins and not including more defined suggestions on how to combine them. I'm pretty sure you can't just eat 5 pills with (any kind of) breakfast and expect them all to be processed together without blocking each other out.
  
  I'd like to find more similar books for some critical input, but so far, I'm pretty happy with this one, and I'm glad I ordered a paperback edition to highlight and bookmark many pages.
• 
  Pat

  The use of "Future Ray" and "Future Terry" is a bit corny and the loads of information on supplements, diets and novel medical diagnostics can be a bit overwhelming. I'm not enough of a medical expert to know whether following their "TRANSCEND" plan is any more likely to add an extra healthy decade or ten to your life than the dozen other low carb (slow carb / south beach / eaters' manifesto / blue zone / mediterranean etc) diets out there, but it was an interesting read. Kurzweil never hesitates to put forth his vision of the future, which if interesting. I have my doubts on the ubiquitous availability of nanobots to clean, repair and stimulate my every cell within my lifetime, but he does go to the trouble of highlighting a lot of the best practices (in medicine, diet and exercise) that one can take if they want to see what interesting advances lie down the road with the exponential advancement in technology.
• 
  Chris Logan

  After Reading a previous Kurzweil book, I expected this book to be different than it was.
  I expected a book about very radical things a person could/should do to extend their life. In Kurzweils "the singularity is near" some of his most extreme positions seem to revolve around life extension.
  Instead, this book seemed to compile a large number of studies and recommendations that I had already heard in other places. It reminded me of dozens of small things I could/should do to decrease my odds of premature death. Surprisingly I did not find very many things that I considered wacky, except maybe the authors optimism about how far technology will progress by 2023, but that's the subject of his other books, and only a side effect of this one.
  So I went in expecting a more radical book than "the singularity is near" and got a less radical one. That basically recommends a healthy diet, regular exercise, and keeping on top of ones personal health.
• 
  Dr Zorlak

  I am one hundred percent IN.
  
  Living where I live, dealing with outdated, fossilized doctors (who, for example, recommend a diet that includes whitebread, and yet are canonized by the community as "the best in the city"), is millions of times harder than in more developed countries. I am convinced of the book's premise: medicine is now an information technology. We need to adapt to the new paradigm and seek doctors in tune with the times and capable of absorbing the rapid changes we encounter as the singularity nears. I have adopted TRANSCEND and feel a hundred times better than I did when I was a younger man.
• 
  Michael Huang

  Kurzweil is a futurist, which means he’s someone between an extrapolator and Nostradamus. The clickbait of this book is that we are at the cusp of a phase in which one can live long enough to enjoy the next scientific breakthrough that further prolongs the life; so we can live long enough to the next breakthrough, ad infinitum.
  
  The rest of the book is benign enough. It tries to explain some of the common issues of health (e.g., free radicals) and what one should do about them (eat healthy, exercise, supplements). If you follow the regime, I suppose you won’t be shortening your life. But immortality? Yeah right.
• 
  Christina

  Don't trust men to come up with diets that include enough heme iron for the woman of childbearing age. I somewhat agree with the arrangement of Kurzweil and Grossman's novel food pyramid, but many women have an iron deficiency and the prescribed diet won't help with that. The book deserves its three stars for the introduction of ubiquinol, vitamin megadosing guidelines and the exercise component, although apparently the book budget couldn't afford both a man and a woman performing exercises. This would have been a four-star book at least with better nutritional advice.
• 
  John Orman

  A thorough and interesting program to optimize our health is developed in this book.
  
  How to live life to the fullest is presented by super-technologist and futurist Ray Kruzweil and medical doctor Terry Grossman.
  
  In short--the keys to living long and prospering are:
  
  Talk with your doctor (Prevention and Early Detection)
  Relaxation
  Assessment
  Nutrition
  Supplements
  Calorie reduction
  Exercise
  New Technologies
  Detoxification
  
  
  Each topic is explained in much greater lengths in the book, with symptoms to look out for and conditions to be aware of.
  
• 
  Evan Snyder

  This book is interesting, but you can really get a good bulk of its immediately and broadly useful information by reading my friend
  DJ's synopsis/review. (He has distilled it straight to its essence excellently and I feel like I could not add much value with my own rehashing.) Pick up the complete book to read a chapter about specific health concerns.
• 
  Rob

  In the "Singularity is Near" Kurzweil convinced me that if I avoided accidents there was a chance I could have an extended lifetime thanks to advances in technology. In "Transcend" he explained in great detail how to stack the deck in my favor for staying as healthy as possible. Thanks to Ray, I have an extremely optimistic outlook for the future!
  It turns out this fits my philosophy of live each day like it's your last but treat everybody and everything like you will live with them forever!
• 
  Athanasius

  The ideas presented in this book are good, although the fact that the author pops 150 odd pills a day in an effort to prolong his life tells you a lot about his philosophy.
  
  Personally, life is about quality rather than quantity, but I think the author's fear of death is his primary motivator.
  
  Interesting health 'facts' although I'm sure most will be laughed at as false by future more advanced generations.
• 
  Vicki

  Comprehensive coverage of the life style changes that someone may partake to improve the quality and span of their lives. The dietary suggestions are very accurate and complete. The book, however, is overly optimistic regarding possible future scientific discoveries and their impact on human health. Several important factors such as the role of the sunlight exposure are only briefly mentioned and need deeper coverage.
• 
  Marjorie Turner

  My health and wellness .. my responsibility. Top three for me: exercise, enough sleep and jettison the sugar. Got some other good ideas from this book about supplements, where to target my cholesterol, etc. levels; and my new goal to reduce my waist/hip ratio. I enjoy Ray Kursweil's thoughts on technology - and I'll be watching how the medical field will evolve in the next years. Ray's ideas are definitely futuristic.
• 
  Carrie

  I really enjoyed how this book was laid out, although the futures selves of the authors was a bit strange, it was a quick and easy way for them to tell the reader what medical advancements they predict in the near future. However far fetched they may sound. The science behind what and how we should manage our health in the present is very sound and similar to all the other reading I have done on the subject. I plan on using it as a handy manual to manage my current health needs.