Predictions: Thirty Great Minds on the Future (Popular Science) Book

The near future--viewed, in the instance of this book, as the rest of the now-dawning 21st century--may turn out to be awful. Well-known and obscure prognosticators have envisioned dark times of war, famine, plague and want; of humans ruled by machines, in servitude to the global economy; of disappearing ecosystems and countless lost species. Most of the contributors to Predictions, though not sporting rose-tinted spectacles, take an altogether brighter view of the coming century. Mostly scientists, scholars and innovators, they see a time of abundance and technological splendour. Arthur C. Clarke, for instance, foresees the rise of an artificial intelligence that so closely approximates human thought that it will constitute the planet's second "intelligent species ... evolving far more rapidly than biology would ever permit." Another contributor, the philosopher Daniel Dennett, envisions an ever-improving system of education and communications, one that will make it "harder and harder for leaders to shield their people from outside information." Frances Fukuyama, a social theorist, holds that "the further integration of global markets will further enforce the norms and institutions of the liberal democratic West." A few contributors raise alarms about the growth of monoculture, the destruction of the environment, and the consequences of too-free dabbling with the genetic code, but in the main this lively book--which mixes entertaining profiles of the book's 30 subjects with short essays by them--suggests that there are few technological or social problems that well-intentioned humans cannot solve. --Gregory McNameeRead More