Our Cosmic Future: Humanity's Fate in the Universe [Hardcover]

Nikos Prantzos (Author), Stephen Lyle (Translator)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 28, 2000

What is humankind's ultimate fate and destiny in the Universe? Can human life and intelligence go on forever? This captivating and unparalleled book explores the future of the human race in the Universe, for centuries, millennia, and eons to come. Nikos Prantzos, distinguished astrophysicist and popular science writer, focuses not on what will be done, but on what could be done in light of our current knowledge and the speculations of eminent scientists. While he employs many concepts from physics, Prantzos also provides historical accounts of such ideas as terraforming, asteroid mining, interstellar travel, astroengineering, and eschatology, discussing their philosophical and social implications. Moreover, he uses the work of well known science and science-fiction writers--including Verne, Wells, Clarke, Tsiolkovsky, and Dyson--to illustrate many possibilities and concepts. Our Cosmic Future offers compelling answers to such intriguing questions as: Should we return to the Moon and eventually colonize Mars and other planets in our solar system? Why haven't we encountered an extraterrestrial civilization up to this time in our history? How can we avoid various cosmic threats, such as asteroid collisions and supernova explosions? Could we escape the remote, yet certain, death of the Sun? What will eventually happen to stars, our Galaxy, distant galaxies, and the Universe itself? With its artful blend of historical, scientific accounts and themes from classic works of science fiction, Our Cosmic Future is a spellbinding work that will enchant all readers interested in space travel and colonization, cosmology, and humankind's future prospects in the Cosmos.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Science-fiction enthusiasts, among others, will find a nice summary of various ideas about the fate of our species." American Scientist

"An enormous task, accomplished with remarkable effectiveness in a small volume marrying diagrams and pictures with very lucid writing." Choice

"The book provides an excellent overview of humanity's possibilities in space, and it should be enjoyable to anyone with an interest in the topic." The Futurist

Readers interested in a superb melding of the "present" state of astrophysics and substantive science fiction will certainly be fasinated by this work. Nikos Prantzos gives the reader a well balanced presentation...Secondary school science teachers will find the numerous tables, sketches and insights very helpful in clarifying astronomical relationship as well as illustarting the potential for living and traveling in space." Our Cosmic Future

Language Notes

Text: English (translation)
Original Language: French

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 300 pages
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press; 1st Ed. (U.K.) edition (April 28, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 052177098X
• ISBN-13: 978-0521770989
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.2 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.8 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,582,349 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Decent breath of an enormous cosmology, July 23, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: Our Cosmic Future: Humanity's Fate in the Universe (Hardcover)

Professor Prantzos analyzes the evolution of the universe and examines what some thinkers have forseen about its ultimate fate. The most interesting sections of Our Cosmic Future was the colonization models to be undertaken for the Solar System. The Lunar colonization efforts look very practical indeed. But the moon is only the start. This effort to populate the solar system, will not cease until the 10-Trillion worldlets of the Oort Cloud (named after Dutch astronomer Jan Van Oort) are inhabited. Count on this to be a long term project. The essay continues with the habitation of the Galaxy and the fate of the Cosmos and intelligence. This work compliment's Marshall Savage's Millenium Project, Freeman Dyson's Infinite In All Directions.

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Contains little new, April 17, 2001

By 

T. Day (Edinburgh, Scotland) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Our Cosmic Future: Humanity's Fate in the Universe (Hardcover)

I really wanted to like this book; normally I just love this sort of outrageously long term speculation. Unfortunately it's mainly a summary/historical review of other people's ideas, and if you're interested in this sort of thing then you've probably seen most of it before. On the other hand, if you're new to this kind of speculation then this book might be a good place to start (so add a star) as it covers a lot of ground without too much detail. The frequent references to science fiction (in particular Olaf Stapeldon's cosmological novels, of which the author is obviously a huge fan) in what initially appears to be quite an academic text is quite unusual, and could lead you to add a few titles to your wish list. The book was originally written in French and I suspect that part of the problem is poor translation; it's just not all that compulsive reading.