Customer Reviews

Where's My Jetpack?: A Guide to the Amazing Science Fiction Future that Never Arrived

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(9)
3 star:		(7)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This book is classified as humor, and indeed it is very amusing. The ironic tone is maintained well, and the occasional jokes have a pretty good batting average at really being funny. However, the book is also quite factual in its discussions of the current state of progress on the various "Wonders of Tomorrow". Since so much of this involves actual robots, rocket planes, jetpacks, etc., that exist today (or at least existed at one time), you really want to see photos of these things. There are none at all in the book.

By the way, I'm still waiting for the solar-powered electro-suspension car that I saw on the old "Disneyland" TV show.

You have to hand it to yesterday's science fiction writers and futurologists: They portrayed futures where people got off their butts and did interesting things in the physical world: flying around in jetpacks, building underwater cities with the help of artificial gills and trained dolphins, colonizing the moon, etc. These visionary projects seem a far cry from the allegedly "futuristic" stuff popular in the real early 21st Century, like sitting in front of your computer all day and pretending you have a "second life" online. Wilson explores the current state of the more interesting technologies from futures past, demonstrates some of their weaknesses and impracticalities, and points to individuals, companies and organizations still working on things sort of like what people my age (late 40's) and older remember hearing in our youth about the wonders of the 21st Century.

Wilson's book could have benefitted from some better fact checking, however. Specifially in his chapter on "Cryogenic Freezing," he erroneously states that "dozens of companies" offer cryonics services. In fact, only two organizations that I know of -- Alcor Foundation in Scottsdale, Arizona, and the Cryonics Institute in Clinton Township, Michigan -- perform cryonic suspensions and storage of patients. And they don't run as "companies," which implies profit-seeking; instead they run as not-for-profit organizations that stay in existence in defiance of market signals, not unlike progressive talk radio in the U.S.

Wilson also erroneously implies that the cryogenic dewars which store cryonics patients need electricity to maintain their liquid nitrogen temperature, when in fact they work passively, without electricity, like thermos bottles. And he ignores or doesn't know about progress in the vitrification of the human brain, which bypasses the formation of damaging ice crystals.

These and some other mistakes aside, Wilson has performed a service by adding to the growing body of literature that asks, "Why does the real world in the 21st Century look so lame?" He also encourages the reader who wants these kinds of things to become a lot more assertive about acquiring them. "Get out there, raise your voice, and demand your personal jetpack -- the magnificent future of humankind depends on it."

Carnagie Mellon University PhD, degree in robotics, author of "How to Survive the Robot Uprising" = Daniel Wilson. Wilson takes another foray into the world of books by giving us the ever important question of 'Where's My Jetpack?'. Science fiction of the past predicted so many ideas for our future on surefire technologies that would come to pass... but didn't. Wilson looks into a plethora of these ideas and just how far they have progressed to feasibility and marketability. The answer is a big fat zero. Wilson keeps it simple for the mass audience, meaning we don't require PhDs ourselves to get the jist of what the author is conveying. Wilson gives us updates on projects and shows us the close-to-completion, won't-happens, and the looming-on-the-horizon of the old futurama ideas.

There's plenty of light humor mixed into the writings and some are pretty bad jokes. It's a light and fanciful book to read and will only take a few hours to complete. He covers topics ranging from jetpacks, flying cars, hoverboards, robot servants, smart houses, underwater and lunar cities, civilian space travel, ray guns, holograms, cloaking devices, food & no-sleep pills, cryogenics, and more. The book itself has blue foiled page edges and cover; the illustrations are largely silhouettes and simple line drawings but satisfactory. Overall, it's quick to read and will make you think of all the missed opportunities of the past science fiction world proposed by the likes of Asimov, Clarke, Heinlein, and Tomorrowland.

Since his last book, "How To Survive a Robot Uprising: Tips on Defending Yourself Against the Coming Rebellion" Daniel H. Wilson has apparently satisfied his Ph.D. requirements and his committee members at Carnegie Mellon University, despite having published a less-than-scholarly-but-still-quite-helpful book for a general (and still-woefully-unprepared-for-a-robotic-rebellion) audience. Congratulations! In his new book, "Where's My Jetpack?: A Guide to the Amazing Science Fiction Future that Never Arrived", roboticist Wilson takes the same tongue-in-cheek (vocal processor-in-speaker?) approach to amazing-science-fiction-future technologies as he took to surviving a robot rebellion, combining real-world science with technically feasible technologies to come up with practical suggestions and advice.

From flying cars to ray guns to food pills to x-ray specs, Wilson takes 30 futuristic technologies we have yet to enjoy on a large scale and discusses the current state of the art, the science behind it, and the obstacles preventing widespread implementation. Breezy, informal and yet very informative, "Where's My Jetpack?" provides a fun romp through most of the amazing technologies which have become staples in science fiction but not in real life. Each chapter stands on its own, with some technological promises closer to being realized, such as household robots and ray guns, than others, such as teleportation of humans or moon colonies. Richard Horne provides bold illustrations perfectly complementing the retro-futurist subjects of the book. Always enjoyable, "Where's My Jetpack" may be one of the few books by a Carnegie Mellon Ph.D. that doesn't require a Ph.D. to read.

This could have been an excellent book. The idea is great, an overview of how real-life science has dealt with supposedly futuristic inventions such as flying cars, underwater hotels and jetpacks. The author who has a PhD in Robotics is obviously qualified to write such a book. The problem is that this book is written as a comedy book not a science book. Instead of interestng details relating to the subject, the reader is given bad jokes and only minimal scientific discussion. Although the book is nearly 200 pages in length, it is more like a short pamphlet with its giant print and plentiful illustrations. Overall, it was still interesting reading, but it could have been so much better.

There are a few books out there that have mastered the format of providing answers to scientific, medical or everyday myths in an entertaining, therefore easy to read non journal/textbook sounding way. Where's my Jetpack? however is the first of these great books, that I have come across anyway which tackles the imagined future of decades ago compared to the reality of that future time of being today. Many science fiction novels, TV shows and even advertisements on the back of comic books foretold a future of gadgets, transportation, robot helpers and living environments that would make life so much easier and interesting for your average human. Who hasn't had the conversation of where are the flying cars, underwater cities and so on with their friends at some stage. Even Seinfeld had an episode where George and Jerry brought this up. Up to now though no has provided the answers to why some of these things aren't around or in fact told us that some of them are. Where's My Jetpack? is a great short, fast, informative read that will provide you with lots of information to bring up these very questions again the next time you see your friends.

I found Where's My JetPack to be really interesting. It might not go into the depth that some people want on each topic but it does provide enough info to know why something will never happen, or where the product can be found if it is already out there, if we can expect to ever see it in the future or that mankind had it but didn't want it (Smell O- Vision).

A great example of a topic covered is the whole invisible man science fiction creation which although not invented by was made popular by H.G. Wells and authors since then such as H.F. Saint. I will readily admit I have been a huge fan of the fiction novels in this genre and Wilson's information on the whole miniature cameras and image projections in the cloak actually turns something you thought would always only be fiction into something that could feasibly become reality one day. I really hope some fiction authors use this cloak method and write some good fiction with it.

Other stuff I had never even thought about was also very intriguing such as the elevator to space. I mean it makes sense when you think about it, we don't use jet propulsion to get to the 100th story of an office building so obviously this would be the safer, more cost effective way to get satellites, space station material and even people into space. I'd never even thought of that the sue companies for your own stupidity, that initially was born in the US and is now plaguing the world impacts future helpful to society inventions such as the moving sidewalk. We could right now have faster moving people movers at the airports and elsewhere right now if not for this greedy element of society.

Where's My JetPack? is a very good book, I highly recommend it. If you are after other great entertaining as well as educational reads on science also check out Great Mythconceptions: The Science Behind the Myths by Karl Kruszelnicki, Do Blue Bedsheets Bring Babies?: The Truth Behind Old Wives' Tales by Thomas Craughwell, Can You Drill a Hole Through Your Head and Survive?: 180 Fascinating Questions and Amazing Answers About Science, Health and Nature by Simon Rogers and Can a Guy Get Pregnant? : Scientific Answers to Everyday (and Not-So-Everyday) Questions by Bill Sones.

Topics covered inside Where's My JetPack? are -
The Jetpack
Zepplins (Huge Goodyear type airships)
Moving Sidewalks
Self Steering/Flying Cars
Hoverboard
Teleportation
Underwater & Space Hotels / Moon Colonies / Skyscraper Cities
Dolphin Guides / Artificial Human Gills
Holograms
Smell O Vision
Robot Pets / Servants / Smart House
Mind Reading Devices / X-Ray Specs
Anti - Sleeping Pill
Invisible Camouflage
Universal Translator
Unisex Jumpsuit
Food Pill
Ray Guns
Space Mirror / Elevator
Cryogenic Freezing

And it gives you an answer too, although not always the one you want to hear. Wilson looks at inventions that have been "just around the corner" or an accepted part of future life for decades and lays out just why they haven't come about... or at least not in the form originally envisioned. The jetpack is a perfect example: it looked like it was real, cutting-edge technology when it appeared in films and TV shows in the 1960s and 1970s, but in reality it is a dead-end technology because of noise, fuel consumption, etc. etc.

Who explains all this? No one that I know of, other than Wilson.

A good book to read at your leisure. Look for the futuristic, shiny blue book!

I had great hopes of this. Wilson tries too hard. He's not
as funny as he thinks he is or wants to be. A (very) few of
his short chapters do hit the nail on the head. But not
enough of them.

It was a good idea for a book. It still is.

If you're of a certain age such that you remember the various magazines of the late 50's and the 60's that promised great things in the "future", then you'll find yourself saying "Oh yeah...Food Pills...Domed Cities...Aqua Gills. Hmmmmm...what ever happened to all that stuff?" as you flip through the chapters. So naturally, anyone younger than 40 has no frame of reference to the basis for the book and would probably wonder why older people were so silly "back then". Oh well.

Anyway, the stories are a mix of history, science updates, and a humorous take on what happens when naive science fiction and real science collide. It's that collision that keeps us from living under the ocean in glass cites or flying through the air in our anti-gravity cars or our jetpacks. But the most interesting aspect of the book is where the author discusses some old flight-of-fancy that has somewhat of come true in our day, even if it's not in the manner that was envisioned by the futurists of 50 years ago.

A fun book, easy to read.

This isn't a traditional book, but more of a Reader's Digest style collection of 2-4 page overviews of different technological subjects. It is an interesting look back on ideas that humans expended time and brain power on (in some cases a lot of each) that never really became part of mainstream society. I liked the fact that I could put it down and pick it back up a week later and never get lost, since each review is self contained.