Year Million: Science at the Far Edge of Knowledge [Paperback]

Damien Broderick (Editor)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0977743349 | ISBN-13: 978-0977743346 | Publication Date: May 26, 2008

Leading and up-and-coming scientists and science writers cast their minds one million years into the future to imagine the fate of the human and/or extraterrestrial galaxy.

This volume of fifteen new, specially commissioned essays by notable journalists and scholars such as Rudy Rucker, Jim Holt, and Gregory Benford presents a series of speculations on the most radical but well-grounded ideas they can conceive, projecting the universe as it might be in the year 1,000,000 C.E. Their collective effort—first attempted by H. G. Wells in his 1893 essay "The Man of the Year Million"—is an exploration into a barely conceivable distant future, where the authors confront far-flung possibilities, at times bordering on philosophy of science. How would the galaxy look if it were redesigned for optimal energy use and maximized intelligence? What is a universe bereft of stars?

Contributors include Amara D. Angelica, Catherine Asaro, Gregory Benford, Robert Bradbury, Sean M. Carroll, Anne Corwin, Dougal Dixon, Robin Hanson, Steven B. Harris, Jim Holt, Lisa Kaltenegger, Wil McCarthy, Rudy Rucker, Pamela Sargent, and George Zebrowski.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

The human race has come a long way in the 1.5 million years since Homo erectus rose up and walked on two feet. What will humans look like in another million years (if we're still around)? Where will we live and what will we be doing? In this collection, Broderick, an Australian writer and science fiction editor, and a dozen-plus contributors let their imaginations run wild. At times they sound like a bunch of dudes tossing around what if's, but they've come up with truly funky ideas. The concept of a Matrioshka brain crops up more than once—a gigantic system of solar-orbiting structures to trap the sun's energy. Other authors stay more down to earth. Dougal Dixon speculates on continental drift and changes in the Earth's magnetic field. Steven Harris discusses why deuterium may take the place of oil and gas as our primary energy source in a few millennia. Several chapters read more like science fiction than sound scientific speculation, and a few wander off topic, but it's all great fun. (May)
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About the Author

Damien Broderick, Ph.D., is a freelance writer, senior fellow in the School of Culture and Communication at the University of Melbourne, and science fiction editor at the Australian popular science monthly Cosmos. He received the Distinguished Scholarship Award from the International Association for the Fantastic in the Arts in 2005. He lives in Melbourne, Australia and San Antonio, Texas.

Product Details

• Paperback: 304 pages
• Publisher: Atlas & Co. (May 26, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0977743349
• ISBN-13: 978-0977743346
• Product Dimensions: 7.1 x 5.1 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #506,495 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Highly Recommend!, August 2, 2008

By 

V. Aronsky "Varonsky" (New York, NY) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Year Million: Science at the Far Edge of Knowledge (Paperback)

What an awesome awesome book! I haven't enjoyed a new book that can plausibly be construed as sci-fi for a while. The book is basically a collection of essays by a number of experts in their respective fields. The subjects range from the significance of prime numbers vs. humor, extending human life span, and very very very far off future. The overall claim is that we will basically become aliens with god like abilities (that is unless we do ourselves in first). There are a number of references at the end of the book that are worth looking up.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Fascinating Exercises for Your Mind, August 3, 2008

By 

Shannon Vyff (Calverley, Pudsey, Leeds, UK) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Year Million: Science at the Far Edge of Knowledge (Paperback)

This book stretches anyone's mind. No matter how much science fiction one has read, or futurist literature --there are new ideas contained within the pages of Year Million. Not all the writers are equal, some are better than others--but a few shine brilliantly. You can read and disagree, formulate your own ideas--or nod your head with the 'hmmm' moments when you agree. It is a fun book, I highly enjoyed it.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Year Million is an awesome read., August 24, 2008

By 

Aaron S. Post - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Year Million: Science at the Far Edge of Knowledge (Hardcover)

This is a book from several leading scientists/mathematicians/speculators, that for an inquiring mind of what the future holds, will keep you reading deep into the night. It is a very optimistically rounded off point of view of what the world may/ or may not be in a million years from now. No where will you find nuclear extinction or, cataclysmic astroid deaths. This is a book of mere speculation of the human race surviving to the year million; but a very creative read. Their are 13 contributing authors, and each essay has a different take on what the future holds. I found the first half of the book to be a completely awesome read. And I skipped a couple chapters in the middle, but the end was pretty good; talking about how the universe's infinite expansion could be met by human kind's or intelligent life's willingness to survive past the death of our sun, and the forever cold universe: stretching out and slowing down its life functions. Many times throughout the book, there are few hard facts on how some things can be done, and much of it is left up to a science fiction take on things. But, then again we are talking about life 1 million years from now. This is a very intriguing read for anyone curious about what life could hold 999,900 years after our generation's bones are all buried and dried up.