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The Way We Will Be 50 Years from Today: 60 Of The World's Greatest Minds Share Their Visions of the Next Half-Century
 
 
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The Way We Will Be 50 Years from Today: 60 Of The World's Greatest Minds Share Their Visions of the Next Half-Century [Hardcover]

Mike Wallace (Editor)
3.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (14 customer reviews)

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Book Description

April 13, 2008
The world is an uncertain place, which is why the future and the unknown absolutely fascinate us. Veteran television journalist Mike Wallace asked the question "What will life be like 50 years from now?" to sixty of the world's greatest minds. Their responses offer a fascinating glimpse into the cultural, scientific, political, and spiritual moods of the times. Edited and with an introduction by Mike Wallace, this book provides an imaginative and thought-provoking look into our collective soul and the critical issues that underlie our hopes, prayers, fears, and dreams for life in the 21st century.

Contributors include former presidents, leading scientists, noted writers and artists, respected religious leaders, and current political figures, including:

  • Vint Cerf, Vice President of Google; known as a "Father of the Internet"
  • Francis S. Collins, M.D., Ph.D., a geneticist who led the Human Genome Project
  • Dr. Wanda Jones, Director of the Office on Women's Health at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services
  • Ray Kurzweil, an inventor whose developments include the first print-to-speech reading machine for the blind and the first text-to-speech synthesizer
  • General James E. Cartwright, Commander of United States Strategic Command
  • Kim Dae-jung, the former President of the Republic of Korea
  • Ronald Noble, Secretary General of Interpol
  • Norman Borlaug, Nobel Peace Prize winner; called "the father of the Green Revolution"
  • Carol Bellamy, former Executive Director UNICEF, first former volunteer to serve as director of Peace Corp, and current president and CEO of World Learning
  • Gerardus 't Hooft, Professor of Theoretical Physics at Utrecht University in the Netherlands; Nobel Prize in Physics
  • Craig Newmark, Internet pioneer and founder of craigslist

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Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

These short meditations on the world in 50 years are overwhelmingly devoted to developments in human health, climate change and technology, with a disappointing scarcity of speculation about any social or spiritual transformations. Scientists, who make up more than half of the contributors, predict that genetic engineering will be commonplace and AIDS obsolete, although infectious diseases will adapt and prosper. Marriages will be arranged by compatible genotype; the oceans will rise; cats will no longer be kept as pets—they will have been identified (along with hamsters and birds) as transmitters of everything from Parkinson's to schizophrenia. China and India will be the new superpowers, and the U.S. will finally adopt the metric system. Although many writers note that certain species of plants and animals will be extinct in 50 years, only one laments that several languages will also be dead. This privileging of the scientific viewpoint makes the contributions from immunologist Peter Doherty and writer Michael Shermer all the more welcome as they attempt to focus on humanity rather than technology, imagination more than data. Perhaps it is easier to chart the course of climate change than social change—still the inhabitants of the planet and the future of their governments, beliefs and values deserve as much attention as the planet itself. (Apr .15)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Product Details

  • Hardcover: 256 pages
  • Publisher: Thomas Nelson (April 13, 2008)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 084990370X
  • ISBN-13: 978-0849903700
  • Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.2 x 1.3 inches
  • Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
  • Average Customer Review: 3.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (14 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,107,396 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

 

Customer Reviews

14 Reviews
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Average Customer Review
3.2 out of 5 stars (14 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars We need new leaders to confront global problems, May 8, 2008
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This review is from: The Way We Will Be 50 Years from Today: 60 Of The World's Greatest Minds Share Their Visions of the Next Half-Century (Hardcover)
The list of personalities who contribute to this book is impressive, including several Nobel Prize winners in Physics, Medicine, Chemistry , Economics and Peace.
The most clear-sighted say that the future is essentially unpredictable ("the hallmark of science has been unanticipated great leaps"), but there are two main conclusions: we need a new political leadership ( "there is a lack of vision in global affairs", something more acute in the US, of course) and they and we need to take care of some major problems: energy, water and food supplies, climate change, demography, health problems (obesity and its derivatives being a prominent one).
Then, there are a few somewhat surprising statements:
-Most mental illnesses will be proven to be of microbial origin (transmitted by animals)
-People will live over 140 years of quality life
-AIDS will be fought with an anti-HIV virus
-We will know the exact positions and velocities of a 100 billion galaxies
-We will have clones (but they will be distinct from us)
-In order that in 2058 all humans enjoy the standards of living enjoyed now by the West you need to build one Gigawatt power plant every single day for 40 years
-We will recreate life in the laboratory
-There will be intelligent self-programmable machines that will evolve much faster than us so we will be forced to become hybrids (cyborgs)
-There will be methods to convert CO2 directly to useful fuels
-In the future medicine will be predictive, personalized, preemptive and participatory
-We will download 3D blueprints and simple solid products will be nanoassembled at home
-A lot of people will spend a lot of time immersed in virtual reality (Second Life Plus)
-Neurological and psychiatric illnesses will be cured
-Replacing organs grown from our stem cells will be routine
-Driving to work will be mostly a thing of the past (telecommuting)
Optimistic forecasts:
-Science is going to kill the soul stone dead (Dawkins)
-We will understand subjective consciousness (also Dawkins, this might be more realistic), but others doubt it ("I doubt that the code of consciousness will be cracked")
-We will recreate life in the laboratory
-Intelligent extraterrestrials will be discovered in the next 100 years
And pessimistic forecasts:
-Pandemics
-Bio and nuclear terrorism
-Christian and Islamic fundamentalism could bring us to a Dark Age (we could lose our way as it happened when the library in Alexandria was destroyed)
-Crowded cities will be jungles of crime
And outlandish forecasts:
-Flying cars
-Flying shoes
-A global network of maglevs
-California will be a nation
And some nasty facts:
-Carbon dioxide stays in the atmosphere for 100 years
-42% of Americans over 85 have Alzheimer's disease
-If you stay in a hospital you have a 15% chance of getting an infection
Reminders of sensible principles:
-Where goods do not cross frontiers, armies will
Finally:
The XXIst century technologies will be: information technology, life sciences, nanotechnology and neurotechnology.

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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars Looking ahead, July 24, 2008
This review is from: The Way We Will Be 50 Years from Today: 60 Of The World's Greatest Minds Share Their Visions of the Next Half-Century (Hardcover)
I like to hear from people who are moving us ahead in areas I know little about. Their titles don't necessarily impress me, but their brains do. Genetics, pharmacology, bioethics, international police organizations, physics, these are all things I don't normally think much about. It is both fascinating and scary to hear what they have to say about the future. I hope we can deal with it.
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars futurism, June 8, 2008
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This review is from: The Way We Will Be 50 Years from Today: 60 Of The World's Greatest Minds Share Their Visions of the Next Half-Century (Hardcover)
It was pleasant and comforting to read the views of my favorite scientific personalities. It was at the same time rewarding and entertaining. The topics may have been serious but the reading was simple, fluid and easy.
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Inside This Book (learn more)
Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs): (learn more)
fifty years from today, coming fifty years, thinking blue
Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
United States, Nobel Prize, Middle East, Nobel Peace Prize, United Nations, Deciphering the Mega-Trends, More Heart Disease, Security Council, Latin America, Gulf of Mexico, Scientific American, Moore's Law, Monterey Bay, Cold War, Star Trek, Washington Post, South Africa, Snapshots of the Future
Browse Sample Pages:
Front Cover | Table of Contents | First Pages | Surprise Me!
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