Spring Term 1st Post Peter Els and Ray Kurzweil Comparison

For my first post I just wanted to compare some of what I have read in Orfeo to the movie The Transcendent Man as these are the two things we have seen and read first this term. This blog post is just to make a comparison between Peter Els and Ray Kurtzweil which I think I may do a few of because they are both interesting people with one being fictional and the other real. Both share a connection with music which was introduced to them from a parental figure with Els from his mother, a pianist, and Kurzweil from his father who was a composer. Both characters are musically talented, but have had different goals in life like how Kurzweil wants to live forever and bring his father back from the dead through the use of technology/ Artificial Intelligence whereas Els as far as I have read has been in love with music and wants to make his magnum opus piece. These men also both lose there fathers while they are young from heart problems which in turn affected their opinions about life. A difference as far as I can tell is that Kurzweil is obsessed with living forever and is unwavering in his attepts which is good and scary. Els on the other hand as far as I have gotten through the book was not overly affected, but does mention that through his 7 decades before his dog had died he had only felt a certain level of grief about 6 times that had helped him have a certain appreciation for things. As I continue throughout the book I would like to go back and compare the two or compare Els to another person. His life is really interesting as his dad dies and how he views music through his own eyes and how he describes his dog Fideleo's attraction for music like how Kurzweil has his own views on the singularity and human transcendence.