Buying Options

Kindle Price: $3.14

Enter a promotion code or Gift Card

Share <Embed>

Where Is My Flying Car?: A Memoir of Future Past by [J Storrs Hall]

Follow the Author

J. Storrs Hall

Where Is My Flying Car?: A Memoir of Future Past Kindle Edition

by J Storrs Hall (Author) Format: Kindle Edition

54 ratings

See all formats and editions Hide other formats and editions

Price

New from

Used from

Kindle

"Please retry"

$3.14

—

Kindle
$3.14 Read with Our Free App

Back in the 60s we were all sure there would be flying cars in our future. Were the futurists and SF writers of the day just wrong? Or has something more interesting and important happened? Will we ever get flying cars? This book offers a compelling analysis of the past and a surprising view of the future.

Length: 627 pages

Enhanced Typesetting: Enabled

Page Flip: Enabled

Due to its large file size, this book may take longer to download

Customers who bought this item also bought

Page 1 of 1 Start overPage 1 of 1

Leonard Peikoff
14
Kindle Edition
$4.99
Rahul Rana
8
Kindle Edition
$4.99
Deirdre McCloskey
22
Kindle Edition
$5.00
Donald W. Braben
11
Kindle Edition
$9.99
Bruno Maçães
32
Kindle Edition
$9.99
Kevin Davies
46
Kindle Edition
$19.99

More items to explore

Page 1 of 1 Start overPage 1 of 1

Bailey Richardson
139
Kindle Edition
$9.99
William Quinn
70
Kindle Edition
$12.00
Annie Duke
210
Kindle Edition
$13.99
Stefanie K. Johnson
156
Kindle Edition
$13.99
Charles Goodhart
58
Kindle Edition
$23.18
Mauro F. Guillen
325
Kindle Edition
in Non-US Legal Systems
$14.99

Amazon Business : For business-only pricing, quantity discounts and FREE Shipping. Register a free business account

Product details

ASIN : B07F6SD34R
Publication date : July 1, 2018
Language : English
File size : 33393 KB
Simultaneous device usage : Unlimited
Text-to-Speech : Enabled
Enhanced typesetting : Enabled
X-Ray : Not Enabled
Word Wise : Not Enabled
Print length : 627 pages
Lending : Enabled

Best Sellers Rank: #84,238 in Kindle Store (See Top 100 in Kindle Store)
- #14 in Aviation History (Kindle Store)
- #39 in Aviation History (Books)
- #78 in General Technology & Reference

Customer Reviews:
54 ratings

Customer reviews

5 star		70%
4 star		16%
3 star		9%
2 star		5%
1 star 0% (0%)		0%

How are ratings calculated?

Top reviews from the United States

There was a problem filtering reviews right now. Please try again later.

Peter McCluskey

surprising

Reviewed in the United States on October 14, 2018

Verified Purchase

If you only read the first 3 chapters, you might imagine that this is the history of just one industry (or the mysterious lack of an industry).

But this book attributes the absence of that industry to a broad set of problems that are keeping us poor. J. Storrs Hall (aka Josh) looks at the post-1970 slowdown in innovation that Cowen describes in The Great Stagnation. The two books agree on many symptoms, but describe the causes differently: where Cowen says we ate the low hanging fruit, Josh says it's due to someone "spraying paraquat on the low-hanging fruit".

The book is full of mostly good insights. It significantly changed my opinion of the Great Stagnation.

The book jumps back and forth between polemics about the Great Strangulation (with a bit too much outrage porn), and nerdy descriptions of engineering and piloting problems. I found those large shifts in tone to be somewhat disorienting - it's like the author can't decide whether he's an autistic youth who is eagerly describing his latest obsession, or an angry old man complaining about how the world is going to hell (I've met the author at Foresight conferences, and got similar but milder impressions there).

His main explanation for the Great Strangulation is the rise of Green fundamentalism, but he also describes other cultural / political factors that seem related.

Look for a longer version of this review on my blog.

13 people found this helpful

Helpful

JS-DC

Where have you gone, Tom Swift?

Reviewed in the United States on October 31, 2020

Verified Purchase

Wow. I’m exhausted. This is an unexpected book, far-ranging in subjects, about why so many things we expected in earlier years just never happened: widespread nuclear energy, flying cars, cities under the sea. The mechanics of flying cars, the politics of nuclear regulation, the exception of information technology, all are discussed with an eye to detail. I’ll be chewing this one over for awhile, I’m sure.

One person found this helpful

Helpful

skmurphy

thought provoking review of the technology and economics related to flying cars

Reviewed in the United States on November 14, 2020

Verified Purchase

This a wide ranging book, informed by the author's personal experience and published results. Worth reading for the imagination. In a time when Elon Musk can create re-useable rockets and Pfizer and develop a vaccine 5x faster than any previous effort, it's worth reading if only to test your ideas of what is possible.

One person found this helpful

Helpful

Joshua Fox

J Storrs Hall takes the question by storm

Reviewed in the United States on August 18, 2020

Verified Purchase

"Where Is My Flying Car?" is a techy's lament. But Hall goes deep. He addresses the question on every level: Engineering, law, economics -- reflecting the root causes of our current Great Stagnation.

3 people found this helpful

Helpful

Adran

A technological mystery, and a more-than-technological investigation

Reviewed in the United States on October 25, 2019

Verified Purchase

J Storrs Hall dives into the various explanations of an unfortunate fact: as of yet, we don't have flying cars. The research in this book is impressive, with a convincing amount of evidence to back up the author's theories. He goes over technological aspects, but also beyond them to economic, social and cultural ones.
Not only an analysis of a past SciFi prediction, there's a considerable amount of futurism in this book, based mostly on the potential of atomic - nano and nuclear - technology.
Expect accessible language, but no shortage of technical terms and thoughts in the more engineer-ish/scientific parts of the book. At times, lack of academic familiarity made reading hard, even pointless.

Still, the book served as a window to the possibilities of our technology, and shed light on the obstacles that prevent us from reaching the visions enabled by them - the future we were promised, one that we can hopefully come back to.

Helpful

Bioengineer

Outstanding treatise on why new developments have not met our expectations.

Reviewed in the United States on November 18, 2020

Verified Purchase

One of the best books I have read in a while. Flying Cars are just one example of a product we should all have, but do not. This book examines the reasons for this and what can be done to get back on track for a "Jetsons" future.

Helpful

Gilad Bracha

You'll likely learn a lot about the history, and potential, of aviation, nuclear power and lots more

Reviewed in the United States on October 3, 2020

Verified Purchase

A fascinating synthesis of work in aerospace, nuclear energy and nanotechnology along with an interesting take on the psychology, sociology and economics of technological evolution. There's a lot of technical material, very clearly presented. I am in no position to evaluate all of it, but where I am, it is compelling. I'm sure the socioeconomic commentary will be more controversial, but it is thought provoking and ultimately optimistic. Overall, one of the most enjoyable non-fiction books I've read in a very long time.

Helpful

Teddyc9

Great Book

Reviewed in the United States on December 2, 2020

Verified Purchase

Really wonderful book. It expounds on the great stagnation thesis that Peter Thiel and Tyler Cowen are well known for. It covers Nanotech, flying cars, limitless nuclear energy, and how if we had not gotten off the historical GDP growth trend line in about 1970, due to regulation and cultural revolution, GDP per capita would be 4x greater and we would have those things today.

Helpful

Top reviews from other countries

Matthew Turner

Great in parts

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on September 14, 2020

Verified Purchase

This book looks at why we don't have flying cars. It examines the technological and economic factors that have prevented it. The scientific sections are fantastic, such as noting that autogyro technology would allow the short landings that usable flying cars require. The observations that expensive energy has limited much technology is useful. The sections on economics are less positive. A careful analysis of the facts is suddenly discarded as the author seems happy to accept at face value any academic research that support his case (which is regulation and taxes etc have throttled innovation), even talking about 'competitiveness indicators' with a straight face.

See all reviews

Customers who viewed this item also viewed

Page 1 of 1 Start overPage 1 of 1

Buying Options

Buy for others

Buying and sending eBooks to others

Follow the Author

Similar authors to follow

Where Is My Flying Car?: A Memoir of Future Past Kindle Edition

Customers who bought this item also bought

More items to explore

Product details

Customer reviews

Top reviews from the United States

There was a problem filtering reviews right now. Please try again later.

Top reviews from other countries

Customers who viewed this item also viewed