This Will Change Everything: Ideas That Will Shape the Future [Paperback]

John Brockman (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: December 22, 2009

"What game-changing scientific ideas and developments do you expect to live to see?"

This is the question John Brockman, publisher of Edge.org, posed to more than 100 of the world's most influential minds. Exhilarating, visionary, sometimes frightening, but always fascinating, their responses provide an eye-opening road map of our near future.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Starred Review. Part of a series stemming from his online science journal Edge (www.edge.com), including What Have You Changed Your Mind About? and What Is Your Dangerous Idea?, author and editor Brockman presents 136 answers to the question, "What game-changing scientific ideas and developments do you expect to live to see?" Milan architect Stefano Boeri responds with a single sentence: "Discovering that someone from the future has already come to visit us." Most others take the question more seriously; J. Craig Venter believes his laboratory will use "digitized genetic information" to direct organisms in creating biofuels and recycling carbon dioxide. Like biofuels, several topics are recurrent: both Robert Shapiro and Douglas Rushikoff consider discovering a "Separate Origin for Life," a terrestrial unicellular organism that doesn't belong to our tree of life; Leo M. Chalupa and Alison Gopnik both consider the possibility resetting the adult brain's plasticity-its capacity for learning-to childhood levels. Futurologist Juan Enriquez believes that reengineering body parts and the brain will lead to "human speciation" unseen for hundreds of thousands of years, while controversial atheist Richard Dawkins suggests that reverse-engineering evolution could create a highly illuminating "continuum between every species and every other." Full of ideas wild (neurocosmetics, "resizing ourselves," "intuiting in six dimensions") and more close-to-home ("Basketball and Science Camps," solar technology"), this volume offers dozens of ingenious ways to think about progress.

From Booklist

Brockman asked about 130 scientists and several artists the following question: What game-changing scientific ideas and developments do you expect to live to see? Their two- to three-page prognostications bid farewell to the present while disagreeing on the mode of change. Several respondents espy catastrophes such as nuclear war or global warming, but the majority tell readers to expect a fundamental alteration in the human species. This group predicts that a stupendous expansion in computational capacity allied to genomic engineering will transform the human body, brain included, such that one writer suggests the end of Homo sapiens and its succession by Homo evolutis. Pending that apocalyptic development, other scientists nevertheless agree that burgeoning data processing speeds presage a revolution. Some find it in the transmission of knowledge that will profoundly affect education; others, in lifestyle changes such as a preference for robots as pets. Whether their predictions are alarming or reassuring, most names in this volume will be recognized by the futurology audience, who will reach for Brockman’s book on sight. --Gilbert Taylor

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Product Details

• Paperback: 416 pages
• Publisher: Harper Perennial (December 22, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0061899674
• ISBN-13: 978-0061899676
• Product Dimensions: 8 x 5.3 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #32,898 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

29 of 30 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A mixed bag of essays, stronger than last year's collection, January 6, 2010

By 

Robert C. Ross (New Jersey) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: This Will Change Everything: Ideas That Will Shape the Future (Paperback)

The Edge Foundation is an organization of science and technology intellectuals created "to seek out the most complex and sophisticated minds, put them in a room together and have themselves ask each other the questions they are asking themselves." Its main activity is maintaining its free website and circulating free regular emails about the contributions of its stable of intellectuals.

Once a year Edge publishes a collection of essays devoted to a single question; the 2009 question was devoted to issues that the contributors believe will shape the future. Amazon has provided the excellent table of contents which describes in some detail the answers of all of the contributors.

It is almost impossible (and unfair to the fine essays not sampled) to provide a meaningful review of so many essays, but it is great fun to read through the contents, and then search out more information from authors of interest, either in the book itself or in other resources. (Google does a great job of providing more information by entering the author's name and a few of the words from the Table of Contents.) I found the Kindle version particularly interesting, especially the iPhone version; it's fun to dip into the collection in odd moments, and then follow the links or use Google to find additional information.

Michael Bond in "The New Scientist" describes the contents well: "Some ideas are predictable (immortality, intelligent robots, designer children), some world-saving if they happened (oil we can grow) and some we'd be better off without (neuro-cosmetics). Many are self-indulgent technological fantasies. With [130 contributions] the book is like an intellectual lucky dip. Perfect for: anyone who wants to know what the big thinkers will be chewing on in 2010."

Edge's home page has a wonderful selection of extracts from the book, including some offbeat pictures of some of the contributors, and some additional information and videos that add complexity to the collection.

The specific question this year is "What game-changing scientific ideas and developments do you expect to live to see?" You might find it fun to jot down a couple of your own ideas before browsing through the treasures here. You may just run into one of them in these pages.

Robert C. Ross 2010

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars "What game-changing scientific ideas and developments do you expect to live and see?", November 27, 2010

By 

R. Neil Scott "Writer, Professor & User Servi... (Murfreesboro, TN USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: This Will Change Everything: Ideas That Will Shape the Future (Paperback)

That's the question posed to more than 100 of the most influential thinkers of the world -- and, the answers are truly fascinating!

Written in layman language, the essays are brief and to-the-point. And, while familiar with, and having read a great deal in the areas of Future Studies and Competitor Intelligence, I don't think I've ever read anything quite like this book. Usually such works are full of gobbly-gook language or are too scholarly and arcane to be "easy-reading." This book is different as the narrative is similar to what one would probably hear if the reader met any of these individuals on a passenger jet and engaged them in casual conversation.

Here's a sampling:

Scott Sampson, a geologist and geophysicist, suggests that we'll incorporate our better understanding of evolutionary design and theory into science and technology applications. For example, in this field, called biomimicry, scientists will examine aspects of termite mounds to design of passive-cooled buildings; to use the present evolutionary design of spider silk to create strong, flexible fibers of our own, etc.

Rupert Sheldrake, who -- at Cambridge University -- explores unexplained human and animal abilities, discusses the future of materialism in the context of human consciousness via molecular biology and physiological psychology.

Paul Davies, a physicist at Arizona State who specializes in Astrobiology, considers the "fascinating question of whether there might be more than one form of life inhabiting the terrestrial biosphere" of Earth at the microbial level. He suggests: "I believe there is a strong likelihood that Earth possesses a shadow biosphere of alternative microbial life representing the evolutionary products of a second genesis."

Oliver Morton, News and Features Editor of the highly respected journal, Nature, sees geoengineers of the future "deliberately [making] changes in the way the climate system works." While recognizing that scientists involved in this area have traditionally been shunned by colleagues "because of the moral hazard involved," and that such actions will likely backfire and wreck havoc on climate, he still sees it has happening and causing great harm to people and our planet.

Highly recommended for libraries of all kinds. And, for inquiring minds who "want to know" it's an essential purchase !

Please be sure to indicate if this review is helpful...

R. Neil Scott
Middle Tennessee State University

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Short but sweet, February 14, 2010

By 

GAC (Chicago, IL USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: This Will Change Everything: Ideas That Will Shape the Future (Paperback)

This is a nice read that can be read in no particular order since it is composed of very short essays. If you're like me and have a short attention span with books but are interested in the ideas and opinons of others who are experts in their fields, then this is the book for you. All of the opinions are no more than a few pages each. That gives room in the book to talk about a wide variety of interesting topics.