In the Fall of 1997 the MIT Artificial Intelligence Laboratory hosted a ground-breaking and controversial lecture series titled "God and Computers: Minds, Machines, and Metaphysics." Ten talks were given by a broad range of experts in computer science, cognitive science or A.I.; they accompanied an award-wining course in the EECS Department being taught by Dr. Anne Foerst, a Lutheran minister and post-doc at the A.I. Lab (6.915, "God and Computers"). Among other themes, speakers considered the ways in which their work intersected with spiritual and philosophical questions, and how the dialogue between computer science and technology might be expanded.The ninth lecture in the series was presented by Ray Kurzweil SB '70, renowned computer scientist, inventor, author and futurist, on Dec. 3, 1997. In his talk Kurweil anticipates some of the thinking he is developing for his upcoming book of the same title, "The Age of Spiritual Machines" (published in 1999).