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An Optimist's Tour Of The Future: One Curious Man Sets Out To Answer "What's Next?" (2011)

by Mark Stevenson(Favorite Author)

3.94 of 5 Votes: 2

ISBN

1583334149 (ISBN13: 9781583334140)

languge

English

genre

Nonfiction

publisher

Avery

review 1: I picked this book up because I'm writing some sci-fi books at the moment and, let's face it, most futurology is, at best, pessimistic. Of course, a great deal of sci-fi is pretty pessimistic too, but I didn't want that. Also, this is written by a guy who used to be a stand-up comedian, not a scientist, so I figured it would be both humorous and relatively down to earth. All good things.It's quite an enjoyable listen. I suspect the delivery is better coming from the guy who wrote the book than just reading it, but YMMV. Stevenson has a fairly dry humour, which I enjoy.Of course, the book is out of date. The author acknowledges the fact that his work is a snapshot of a moment of the changes in the world. Things are changing so fast that anything more is difficult. It does g... moreive a snapshot of some very interesting potential future technologies and a view on how to deal with them all.If you like your future dark and corporate, a bit like Alien, don't read this. If you want to think the future could be bright, do.
review 2: This felt like a very superficial tour of a number of technologies likely to play a large role in the near future. However, the author lacked any special insight and often got very obvious things wrong. Once he told me Aristotle was a student of Socrates, I checked out, never to fully return. While the topic (to the extent there is one) is interesting, this book was only marginally worth reading. less

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