Having been born & raised in San Francisco and Silicon Valley, I've always been fascinated with technology and the future.
Those subjects still attract me, which is why I read about them often.
Publishers send me Advance Reader Copies (ARC) of their techno-futurist books.
I review them here.
Michio Kaku's Take on The Future of Humanity
Read my complete review to understand why I think this is Kaku's best book (I've read all of his books).
The Space Barons by Christian Davenport
Read why I gave this book 9/10 stars. Moreover, you're guaranteed to learn something in my short review of the book.
Planet Remade by Oliver Morton
VERDICT: 8 out of 10 stars.
21 Lessons for the 21st Century by Yuval Noah Harari
Deborah Bräutigam wonders 'Will Africa Feed China?'
The short answer is NO.
Read my review to get a longer answer.
And read the book to get the whole answer.
How Blockchains Will Disrupt Everything - Stephen P. Williams
Watch my interview with the author, Stephen Williams.
I can tell how much I like a nonfiction book by how many highlights I put in it.
Stephen Williams's "Blockchain: The Next Everything." only got two highlights.
I've gone down the blockchain/cryptocurrency rabbit hole, so I already know a fair amount about the technology, which explains why I didn't learn that much from this book, which is a perfect introduction for those who know little about it.
What were the two things I highlighted?
1. I learned about Nala, a company focused on helping Africans send/receive money via their Nala token.
2. Hashgraph uses a consensus method called Gossip, which allows thousands of transactions per second (vs. most blockchains which allow less than 20).
Get this book if you know little about blockchains and want to learn more.
2030: How Today's Biggest Trends Will Collide and Reshape the Future of Everything by Mauro F. Guillen
I love reading books that forecast the future.
As a result, I rarely read a prediction that I hadn't read about before.
This book is no exception: there were few surprises or issues that I disagreed with.
The other issue is that projecting 10 years into the future lacks the "wow factor."
Certainly, things will be different, but they won't be nearly as different as things 50-100 years in the future.
Despite these shortcomings, I'm giving this book 5 stars because it accomplishes what it set out to do: give various predictions about the world in 2030.
He predicts that:
- Africa will be more important (thanks to baby production)
- Seniors will extend their career
- Indians and Chinese will play bigger roles
- Women will rise dramatically
- Cities will drown (I disagree)
- Toilets without plumbing will be important
- There will be more currencies than countries
That last prediction has already come true. There are over 1,000 alternative cryptocurrencies.
The book is balanced between pessimism and optimism.
If you want to know what life will be like in one decade, read this book.
VERDICT: 5/5 stars
Space 2.0 by Rod Pyle
How Private Spaceflight, a Resurgent NASA, and International Partners are Creating a New Space Age
If you're a space nut, you'll love this book.
It does a great job of diving into the new space race.
It's beautifully illustrated, so it's best to get the hardcover, not the digital version.
VERDICT: 5/5 stars
Spacecraft: 100 Iconic Rockets, Shuttles, and Satellites That Put Us in Space
Part of me didn't want to give this book five stars because I was not in love with it.
On the other hand, it delivers precisely what it promises, earning five stars.
What does it promise?
It's in the subtitle: "100 Iconic Rockets, Shuttles, and Satellites That Put Us in Space"
WHO WOULD LOVE SPACECRAFT:
- Geeks, nerds, and engineers. It's filled with simplified engineering diagrams of 100 spacecrafts.
- You want to know about Soviet/Russian efforts. This is the best part of the book. Most English space books focus on American extraterrestrial accomplishments. You'd think that the US was almost the only player. The truth, as this book clearly shows, is that the Soviets led the way for the first 15 years of the Space Race. And they've been influential ever since.
WHY I DIDN'T LOVE SPACECRAFT:
- It's a geeky coffee table book. It's not filled with photos of space in action. There are many photos, but there are far more diagrams/blueprints of the spacecraft. If that's your interest, you'll love this.
- There's no narrative. It's effectively an Encylopedia. Which is fine but not thrilling.
- It ends abruptly - as an Encyclopedia would.
- There's practically no speculation about spacecrafts in the future. C'mon! This book is excellent for reviewing the past, but anyone who loves spacecrafts also loves FUTURE spacecrafts!
As a writer, I dislike when critics rate my pan one of my books because it was not what they wanted it to be rather than judging based on what I said it would be about.
For instance, if you bought Bob Woodward's Fear book expecting to discuss Donald Trump's childhood, you'd be disappointed. You might give it a one-star review.
That would be unfair to Bob Woodward since he never promised to write about Trump's childhood.
Similarly, just because Gorn didn't publish the Spacecraft book that I wish he had written doesn't mean that it's terrible. Gorn delivers exactly what he promised. He covers 100 spacecrafts. He does that well. Given the book's scope and expectations, it deserves nine out of 10 stars for achieving its objective.
However, if you're looking for a space book with a passionate narrative that delves into the realm of space tourism, then consider other books.
VERDICT: 5 stars
The Telomerase Revolution: The Enzyme That Holds the Key to Human Aging . . . and Will Soon Lead to Longer, Healthier Lives by Michael Fossel
PROS:
- The book sums up the advances in understanding telomeres.
- It shows how telomeres (and their shortening) impact health in many ways.
- He debunks myths about telomeres (e.g., that absolute length is all that matters - it doesn't - it's how much and how fast they shorten that matters)
- Toward the end, Fossel dishes out practical dieting advice and casts a skeptical eye on many diet fads.
- He crushes the idea of diets or programs that "reverse" or "halt" aging. He splashes cold water on all those marketing claims.
CONS:
- Aside from the dieting and exercise advice, there's little the average Joe can do today to take advantage of the telomerase revolution. All we can do is sit back and wait for more clinical trials and advancements.
- Fossell has a bit too optimistic view of the impact of prolonged human life. He thinks global conflicts will go down as people live for hundreds of years. His arguments are unconvincing. However, the idea that we'll clean up the environment and decrease our population growth is defensible and believable if we can live hundreds of years.
CONCLUSION: This book is perfect if you don't know much about telomeres and want to learn more.
VERDICT: 5 out of 5 stars
AI 2041: Ten Visions for Our Future by Kai-Fu Lee; Chen Qiufan
Half of this book is Sci-Fi, and the other half is nonfiction.
The format is that you read a short sci-fi story in 2041, then a short nonfiction explanation about the tech appears in the story.
I only read nonfiction, so I skimmed half of this book.
I thoroughly enjoyed the nonfiction part.
Someone who loves science fiction and nonfiction will adore the book and give it five stars.
VERDICT: 4/5 stars
Artemis by Andy Weir
I read "Martian" long before it became a movie. I loved it.
Artemis is weaker mostly because:
1) the protagonist is not as likable as the one in the "Martian"
2) the plot is weak
Weir writes hard science fiction, meaning he writes SF books based on real science.
I love that.
For example, you learn things such as:
"Lunar dust is extremely bad to breathe. It's made of teeny, tiny rocks, and there's been no weather to smooth them out. Each mote is a spiky, barbed nightmare just waiting to tear up your lungs."
Still, it's not enough to make up for weak characters and a plot about the main character trying to blow up the primary oxygen supply on the moon.
VERDICT: 4 out of 5 stars
Project Hail Mary: A Novel by Andy Weir
If you enjoyed Weir's Martian book, you'd love this too.
It's about the sole survivor of an interplanetary voyage to save our solar system from an exotic bacteria that is eating our sun.
At a distant star, his rocket goes to find a solution, he runs into another lone alien tasked with the same problem.
The book is about their unusual friendship.
Good, hard SciFi.
VERDICT: 4 out of 5 stars.
Future Stories: What's Next? by David Christian
The book is broken up into 4 parts.
Only the final part is about the future:
Chap 8: Next 100 years
This chapter was disappointing.
It spent half the chapter talking about global warming, not shedding any new light or offering a different perspective beyond conventional wisdom.
Table 8.1 was the best part of that chapter because it broke the Existential Risk into subcategories.
He took these odds from Toby Ord.
Humanity has a 1 in 6 chance of destroying itself in the next 100 years.
AI poses the greatest risk.
Chap 9: The human lineage
In this chapter, Christian imagines humanity thousands and millions of years in the future.
He spends most of the chapter imagining the year 3000.
He lacks original ideas, but what we describe will sound novel to the reader who spends little time thinking about the future.
He doesn't write about O'Neill Cylinders, even though most futurists think they will house most of humanity in 1000+ years.
Chap 10: The rest of time
Christian observes that the universe was born 1.4 Solar lifetimes ago.
It will continue for at least a trillion solar lifetimes.
So our universe is a newborn.
He talks about the universe's cold death in trillions of years from now.
I learned nothing new, but if you haven't read about such ideas, you will enjoy the summary.
Authors often use the bulk of the book for fluff and save the meat for last.
They could have written an article or a Kindle Single to sum up their views, but instead, they have a long preamble.
Part II is interesting because it discusses how bacteria, plants, and animals manage the future.
Read a sample on Amazon if you're on the fence.
VERDICT: 2 out of 5 stars
Future Humans: Inside the Science of Our Continuing Evolution by Scott Solomon
I love the topic, but this book is disappointing because it doesn't live up to its title. It spends most of its time looking at the PAST, not the FUTURE.
Scott Solomon spends most of the book proving that modern humans are still evolving, despite how rare it is to find genuinely isolated groups. Although this is important, given the book title, I would have hoped he would spend more time speculating about the future.
HERE ARE THE CHAPTERS:
1. Genomes and germs
2. Big data
3. World in transition
4. Sex
5. Small partners
6. Beyond the horizon
In his final chapters, he says he's been focusing on the "relative short-term future--the next few thousand generations or so."
Really? I missed it.
More importantly, who can credibly project "a few thousand generations" in the future?
Ideally, he would focus on the next 10 generations. That's plenty. Beyond that, the future gets exceptionally vague.
Moreover, the definition of "generation" will probably differ in just a couple of generations. There's a good chance that by the 22nd century, a generation will live a couple of hundred years, not 30. So projecting thousands of generations in the future is a bit too ridiculous.
Besides, after making such a bold promise, Solomon spends half the chapter talking about the past (e.g., Darwin's finches) and the other half talking about a human colony on Mars, which, if you believe Elon Musk, will happen in this century. We don't have to wait "thousands of generations" for that. Then the book ends.
My biggest gripe is that he doesn't delve deeply into transhumanism and the idea that humans could become cyborgs. This is a possibility, yet he hardly mentions it.
This is a fine book. It's just got the wrong title. The title should be: How Humans Are Still Evolving in the Modern World. Or something like that. If such a title would grab you, then grab this book. It fulfills that promise.
If you're looking for a book about transhumanism, keep looking.
VERDICT: 2 out of 5 stars.
Disclosure: I received this book free via the publisher in exchange for an honest review.
Matter Over Mind: Cosmos, Chaos, and Curiosity by Elaine Walker
According to Elaine Walker's website, the purpose of this book is to help you "live in that mental place where logic and compassion are woven together in a robust partnership."
Confused?
Me too.
It's unclear what the point of this book is. It's the intelligent and fascinating ramblings of a brilliant musician who rarely writes about music.
This is a book that I love and hate at the same time. The author is brilliant and extremely interesting. I would love to have a long talk with her. She talks about all the issues that I'm passionate about. We share so much in common.
She handles such diverse topics as the cosmos, a flat universe, string theory, dark matter, chaos, and fractals. She talks about whether we need consciousness. She talks about artificial intelligence and determinism. She covers longevity, overpopulation, virtual worlds, uploading our brains, and transhumanism.
This book is a mishmash of so many different topics. It never focuses on any one thing. It's all about breadth and not depth.
If you don't know about any of these topics, it is a perfect book because it provides a rich introduction.
If, however, you already know the basics, then this book is a waste of time. It never delves that deeply into any topic.
Moreover, she is a musician. While I respect the ability of anybody to write about anything, when discussing all these topics, you would hope that you're dealing with somebody who is a complete expert on at least one of the topics. It should be someone who has devoted their life (or at least a decade) to the field. She has not.
One of her qualifications that she likes to brag about is that both of her parents were mathematicians. While that is good preparation, it does not make you an expert in this domain.
Part of me wanted to give the book four stars because I love the topics. For anyone who doesn't know much about these topics and wants to learn more, then you really should buy this book. However, if you're like me and already pretty knowledgeable about what she writes (even superficial knowledge), you won't learn much since it's a superficial overview of all those topics.
VERDICT: 2 out of 5 stars.
