A View from the Year 3000 [Paperback]

Michael H. Hart (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 30, 1999

This book speculates about the important inventions, scientific discoveries, and political and social developments, which may occur during the coming millennium. It does this by presenting -- through the eyes of a fictitious author living in the year 3000 -- a list of the 100 men and women who have had the greatest impact on world history and on the everyday lives of individuals.

The hundred persons are ranked in order of their influence. The main section of the book consists of short biographies of those 100 persons, describing what each person accomplished, and why that person is so important.

Forty-five of the entries are actual historical personages. These include such well known figures as Jesus Christ, Confucius, Charles Darwin, Christopher Columbus, Albert Einstein, and George Washington.

Among the fifty-five entries from the third millennium are: Sue Ellen Green (who develops a cancer vaccine); Miguel Carranza (chief founder of the United World Federation); Stella Ricardo Garcia (architect and formscaper); Mika Kivikoski (who develops the technology to control the weather); and Shu Gungwu (who finds the solution to the baffling "mind-body problem").

Other topics treated include: space travel and space colonies; medical advances (such as artificial organs, and reversible sex-change operations); arts and entertainment (including music, literature, the visual arts, and sports and games); solar power; philosophy (including political theory, epistemology, semantics, and ethics); mathematics, pollution control, robots, brainwashing; nuclear warfare; robots; and artificial intelligence.

The book includes a historical chart (listing the main events of both the actual past and the projected future), a list of honorable mentions (and their accomplishments); a glossary, and an extensive index.

Editorial Reviews

From the Author

This book is a sort of sequel to my first book, "The 100: A Ranking of the Most Influential Persons in History." The format of the two books is almost identical; but whereas the first book covered only the past (and was therefore non-fiction) this book attempts to peer into the future as well as the past (and is therefore an unusual combination of non-fiction and fiction). I expect that those of you who read my first book will find this one even more thought-provoking.

About the Author

Michael H. Hart was born in New York City in 1932. He received a bachelor's degree from Cornell University, where he majored in mathematics. He later received a Ph.D. in astronomy from Princeton University. He also has an M.S. in physics, and M.S. in computer science, and a law degree. He has worked at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, in Greenbelt, Maryland; at Computer Science Corporation, in Falls Church, Virginia; and at the National Center for Atmospheric Research, in Boulder, Colorado.

Dr. Hart is the author of "The 100: A Ranking of the Most Influential Persons in History" (1978, Hart Publishing Company; revised edition, 1992, Citadel Press). He is also co-editor (and part author) of the anthology "Extraterrestrials: Where Are They?" (1982, Pergamon Press; revised edition, 1995, Cambridge University Press). In addition, he has published a variety of technical articles in scientific journals.

Dr. Hart was for many years a college professor. He taught courses in astronomy, in physics, and in the history of science. He is now a full-time writer.

Product Details

• Paperback: 448 pages
• Publisher: Poseidon Pr (September 30, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0967107717
• ISBN-13: 978-0967107714
• Product Dimensions: 10 x 7 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,509,171 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Brilliantly imaginative...., April 22, 2000

By 

J. P. Rushton "Prof" (University of Western Ontario) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: A View from the Year 3000 (Hardcover)

Michael Hart's brilliant imagination takes the reader on a tour de force of history from the great religious, political and scientific leaders of the past to the imagined ones of the future. See how Jesus, Moses, and Mohammed compare with Hitler, Stalin and those yet to come in influence (whether good or bad, history is the judge). Or Newton, Darwin, and Einstein, with the biotechnologists of the 21st century. Fantastic entertainment and erudition. I enjoyed every moment.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Year 3000, October 25, 2001

By 

unraveler "unraveler" (Nevada) - See all my reviews

This review is from: A View from the Year 3000 (Paperback)

Dr. Hart presents a unique vision of the future. However, he expects nothing wonderous from artificial intelligence (it is legally banned) and rather little from computers in general. In his world of the future, virtual reality is also banned, but sex change operations flourish--with most people undergoing multiple operations in their lifetime.

The system of education, too, is curious. First, it must be truly important, because all of his new entries in this book (I think there are fifty five in all) have attended university for a long time. Today, highly educated people attend universities for years after high school, but in the distant days of the future fantastic described by Dr. Hart, it often takes them decades to do so--obviously this arrangement may be more appealing to academics than the population in general. This protracted schooling takes place despite the fact that direct downloading of information from computers into the brain is possible in that world of the day after tomorrow. Explanation for this paradox: downloading of information provides only the knowledge of facts, but no "understanding." One wonders how perfect brainwashing (another idea that Hart describes as almost imminent) can be real when "downloading" can do no more than supply the human brain with facts. Also, people generally work between 20 and 60 years before they retire; in fact, his most influential people after the year 2000 go to school for almost as long as they work afterwards--then they either live in perpetual retirement, or perish in some accident (although there is at least one suicide). This vision of the future of long schooling, important intellectual work, and endless retirement is the academic's utopia.

One striking feature of Hart's predicitions is that almost everybody who is among the most influential after the twnety-first century comes either from Asia or Africa. As far as I am able to tell, nobody among the most influential people born after the twenty-first century comes from Western Europe. Few of the influential people are people are born outside the earth--mostly in sun-orbiting colonies.

I think in some sense Dr. Hart's view of the year 3000 is too conservative. By 3000, I expect contact with other civilizations in outer space. (While Dr. Hart states very explicitly his view that life is very rare or nonexistent outside the earth, at least in our galaxy.) I also expect cyborgs, genetically engineered creatures of all kinds, virtually real worlds, and very advanced artificial intelligence, whose knowledge and understanding will surpass by far anything a human being can attain.

Having said all that, no one can rule out the possibility that mankind will destroy itself before the fantastic world of 3000 is reached--the world is precarious place to inhabit.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Interesting - A different perspective, March 31, 2000

By 

"anotherdilbert" - See all my reviews

This review is from: A View from the Year 3000 (Hardcover)

An interesting read. I wouldn't agree with some of the predicted technological developements (an easy sex change? - a little too PC) but I still enjoyed the exercise. The 'real' entries were a good review of history. I actually learned a little Chinese history too - enough to make me want to learn more.