AN Optimist's Tour of the Future: One Curious Man Sets Out to Answer "What's Next?"In the tradition of Bill Bryson's A Short History of Nearly Everything, a smart and entertaining guide to the future of civilization When unexpectedly confronted with his own mortality, Mark Stevenson-a writer, deep-thinker, and stand-up comedian-began to ponder what the future holds for our species. "The past is a foreign country," writes Stevenson. "By my analysis it's a bit like France-in that I've been to parts of it and eaten some nice food there. But the future? The future is an unknown territory-and there isn't a guidebook." Thus, his ambition was born. Stevenson set out simply, asking, "What's next?" and then traveled the globe in pursuit of the answers. Along the way, he visited the Australian outback to visit the farmers who can save us from climate change, met a robot with mood swings, and talked to the Spaniard who's putting a hotel in space. While some might be overwhelmed, or even dismayed by the looming realities of genome sequencing, synthetic biology, a nuclear renaissance, and carbon scrubbing, Stevenson remains, well, optimistic. Drawing on his singular humor and storytelling to break down these sometimes complicated discoveries, An Optimist's Tour of the Future paints a wonderfully readable, and completely enthralling portrait of where we'll be when we grow up- and why it's not so scary. Watch a Video |
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LibraryThing Review
User Review - sbarrow57 - LibraryThingA very interesting book that gives a whirlwind tour of future technologies that could change the world we live in. I paticularily enjoyed the wide range of subjects the author covers. He seems to have ... Read full review
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Optisimsfight and the fuiure.
I love this book
Contents
Damned Clever Those Russians | |
Chapter 1The Worlds Most Dangerous Idea | |
Chapter 2 The Most Wondrous Map | |
Damned Clever Those Russians | |
Chapter 3 My Lab Should Not Be Trusted | |
Chapter 4 Can You Turn All the Buttons On? | |
Chapter 5 Like Explaining Shakespeare to a Dog | |
Chapter 6 Invisibly Small and Magical | |
Chapter 8 A Constant and Complete Intercourse | |
Chapter 9 World Leaders Still Dont Really Get It | |
Chapter 10 Im a Disruptive Guy I Like Disruption | |
Chapter 11 The Black Phantom | |
Chapter 12 A Little Bit of a Big Amount | |
Chapter 13 The Best Job in the World | |
Chapter 14 Making a Road Where There IsntOne | |
Chapter 16 Hello and Thanks for All the Fish | |
Other editions - View all
An Optimist's Tour of the Future: One Curious Man Sets Out to Answer "What's ... Mark Stevenson No preview available - 2012 |
An Optimist's Tour of the Future: One Curious Man Sets Out to Answer "what's ... Mark Stevenson No preview available - 2011 |
Common terms and phrases
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Bibliographic information
| Title | AN Optimist's Tour of the Future: One Curious Man Sets Out to Answer "What's Next?" |
| Author | Mark Stevenson |
| Publisher | Penguin, 2011 |
| ISBN | 1101502010, 9781101502013 |
| Length | 384 pages |
| Subjects | › Science / Philosophy & Social Aspects Social Science / Future Studies Social Science / Popular Culture |
| Export Citation | BiBTeX EndNote RefMan |