Customer Reviews

This Will Change Everything: Ideas That Will Shape the Future

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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

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

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.

If you are interested in what some of our foremost scientists and researchers are thinking, and how they see our future, buy this book. The editor(s) have done a marvelous job putting this selection of short essays together enabling an interested layperson to get on overview of the widely varying approaches to understanding what our future holds - and what makes us and our world "tick." These essays present a balanced collection of optimistic and pessimistic voices. Critical inspiration for the rest of us. A must read!

I must admit that it has taken me longer than I had expected to read This Will Change Everything: Ideas That Will Shape the Future. My initial curiosity dropped off quickly because, let's face it, a writer really can't build up much steam in two or three pages. But since I was faced with more than a hundred individuals who were vying for my attention, the odds were pretty good that eventually I would find something that would capture my imagination. The truth is that I was slowly overwhelmed by this collaboration of short essays from 125 of today's leading thinkers, who offered me their thoughts and ideas `that will change the future' for everyone.

It was Juan Enriquez who snuck up on me with Homo Evolutis [p.174] and drove the point home as he described how we have taken control of our own evolution, both mentally and physically, for the first time in human history! Next Laurence Smith [p.191] impressed me when he addressed disappearing ice sheets and other occurring phenomena, Antarctica and other Sleeping Giants, that are threatening our environment and the very future of this world that we have come to know. Stephen Schneider [p.195] reinforced this while he encouraged Conserving the Climate as William Calvin [p.198] foretold of the economic impact of climate change.

Eric Drexler [p.200] follows these warnings up with an innovative molecular manufacturing solution that is designed to attack the related carbon emissions problem head on. Then Robert Provine's [p387] paragraphs raise the novel thought that we may not be perceiving the ongoing changes while Nicholas Humphry [p.389] points out that the basics of humanity haven't changed since the Romans, regardless of the achievements in science.

These are but a few of the thoughts offered in this collection of ideas that take us on a delightful journey into a future that many of us will experience...

Bob Magnant is the author of The Last Transition..., a fact-based novel about politics, the Internet and US policy in the Middle East...

This book is an absolute treasure, not as a work of literature, but as an introduction to great minds.

The book is a collection of very diverse short essays of varying quality and substance. Most of them I would put into these categories. (strictly my perspective of course)

- Valuable short summaries of technology with expected advances

- Insider ideas of the practical impact of advances in science

- Insightful synthesis of the intersection of two or more areas

- Philosophical musings

- Ridiculous academic liberal blather about nothing

- Pipe Dreams and silliness

Probably at least half of the book is great material and the other part ranges from mediocre to pure garbage. I still give the book 4 stars because there is substantial value in it.

The value that I find is in supplementing my reading list for the next year+. Each of the essays gives us a peek into the work and the writing of one person, many of whom I had never heard of before. I have over a dozen names of people that I consider worth researching for future reading.

The topics include alien life, black holes, designer children, robotics, mind control, space travel, life extension and much, much more. It is hard to think of a good topic that was not included.

In one of the worst essays of the book, a moron who will not be named, gushes on and on about the possibility of dumping some yet to be developed chemical into all the worlds waters in order to chemically neuter humans so that they are incapable of having a mean or violent thought. And if the chemical cannot be developed, implanting electronics in the brains of every human on the planet that does the same thing. In the only glimmer of intelligence in this essay the author does acknowledge that anyone who escaped the authors totalitarian vision would be extremely powerful and dangerous and that the now neutered population would be unable to stop them. Ultimate police state in my view.

Still, one of the most fun books I have read in years.

It is amazing that the author is able to gather the thoughts and imaginations of so many great minds. It truly stretches one's imaginations on what's possible in the future. A fun and thought provoking read!

I love this whole series of Edge book. Reading each essay is like reaching into a chocolate box of intellectual stimulation.