What the Future Looks Like: Scientists Predict the Next Great Discoveries―and Reveal How Today’s Breakthroughs Are Already Shaping Our World by Jim Al-Khalili

What the Future Looks Like: Scientists Predict the Next Great Discoveries―and Reveal How Today’s Breakthroughs Are Already Shaping Our World Reviews

• 
  Constantine

  Rating: 3.5/5.0
  
  The book is a collection of different essays written by several authors. It focuses on how the future of humanity might look like in terms of technological advances. The future here is not only the near future but also the not so near one. I liked that the book has not only focused on the bright sides of each advancement but on its drawbacks as well. I found it also interesting to read about what will happen (Apocalypse) if things go wrong and not as planned.
  
  The book is divided into sections like the future of our planet in terms of climate changes, demographics, and biosphere. Then there is the future of humanity and our survival in terms of genetic engineering, medicines, and transhumanism. Then it focuses on the future of the internet and how it will affect us and our world when there will be more use of cloud services and artificial intelligence.
  
  I found the part about the future of transportation, advanced teleporting and time travel to be fascinating a lot but personally, I don't see that happening even in the long run, but who knows what will happen?
  
  There are lots of new information I gained from reading this book but as a tech-savvy, I also found many things discussed here I already knew. So how might this book benefit you in looking into the future will depend on your current knowledge. Nevertheless, this was an interesting read overall.
  
  I have read an advanced copy of this book from NetGalley. The book is set to release in April 2018.
• 
  Correen

  
  This was a fun read. I sat back and let the author and contributors took me through possible changes in our lives. Some of the experimental work had already brought us beyond the imagination of most of us -- self driving cars, etc. Some of the topics were beyond my comprehension, e.g., being in two places at the same time. This is not your usual future prediction book. It is written by scientists whose work in theoretical physics is changing the way we live.
• 
  Lauren James

  I really enjoyed ALIENS, Jim Al-Khalili's last edited essay collection. This wasn't as enticing for me, as I think a lot of the ideas were already discussed in the last collection - it was about the likelihood of meeting aliens, but covered a lot of futurism topics at the same time. I do love the references in these books though, and always find lots of interesting things to read that I might not have stumbled across. A great general science non-fiction guide that will be a brilliant christmas present to any budding scientists or science fans.
• 
  Lily Jones

  As a non-science person, I thought the book was very interesting and fun to read! Although, I was not very interested in the chapters about computers and AI, I liked everything else.
• 
  Denis Vasilev

  Разные авторы пишут по идеям на будущее в своих областях. Качество статей разное, глубоких размышлений мало, да и многое как ни странно устарело
• 
  Stefanie

  This was a surprisingly fast and entertaining read. Al-Khalili did a great job with the contributors: they can all write engagingly for the public. The section groupings (see below) were good, and the length of each piece was standardized to a few pages, which was perfect.
  
  Sitting here in 2022, five years on from the original publication date in 2017, I'm not enough of a specialist or dialed in enough to know what's advanced or come true in each field - except one, of course: the medicine chapter that said "it is a near certainty we will see another major viral pandemic in our lifetime" was sure on the money, wasn't it? Maybe sooner than they thought. *sobs*
  
  Still, it was fascinating to see how the broad shape of that prediction was correct, while the specificity had missed the mark. I feel like it's going to be even more interesting to return to this book in another five years (2027) or ten (2032).
  
  The book components (and some thoughts):
  
  The Future of Our Planet
  Philip Ball, Demographics - There are already too many of us, and more coming.
  Gaia Vince, The Biosphere - Take home: we have to protect the earth, but also human interests. Great last line in this one.
  Julia Slingo, Climate Change - All of this will be familiar, and still terrible.
  
  The Future of Us
  Adam Kucharshi, The Future of Medicine - That viral pandemic sure happened fast, eh?
  Aarathi Prasad, Genomics and genetic engineering - "It will no longer be about your doctor looking at your medical history, but looking at your medical future."
  Adam Rutherford, Synthetic biology - The only thing I remember from this one is that the Beatles invented sampling?!
  Mark Walker, Transhumanism - Transhumanists are way too optimistic for me.
  
  The Future Online
  Naomi Climer, The Cloud and “Internet of Things” - Apparently in 2017 the "Internet of Things" was a super big deal. I feel like I hardly hear about it now.
  Alan Woodward, Cybersecurity - Apparently our Internet of Things is a security risk.
  Margaret A. Boden, Artificial Intelligence - Not quite ubiquitous yet, but getting there.
  Winfried K. Hensinger, Quantum computing - I know we have actual quantum computers now, and it still blows my mind.
  
  Making the Future
  Anna Ploszajski, Smart materials - Where are these self-repairing pants you speak of?
  Jeff Hardy, Energy - Reminds me I need to get a hybrid.
  John Miles, Transportation - Reminds me I need advocate for investment in better public transport!
  Noel Sharkey, Robotics - If they take our jobs, will it be a good or a bad thing? Jury's still out.
  
  The Far Future
  Louisa Preston, Interstellar travel and colonizing the solar system - I learned there are some realistic slower-than-light travel possibilities that aren't like, 100s of years of travel.
  Lewis Dartnell, Apocalypse - Great opening quote from Mario Bros: "All that is not saved will be lost."
  Jim Al-Khalili, Teleportation and time travel - Not off the table yet, I see! Hooray!
• 
  Jay French

  I found this somewhat interesting. The book covered a good number of topics, and included near-future as well as far-future possibilities. If you read a lot of science non-fiction books and magazines like Wired, you’ve heard this before, especially the near-future concepts. I most liked the sections where the authors “let it ride” and speculated on the far future. You usually get those kinds of ideas and discussion only from science fiction books, and the prognostications are used to push the plot forward, usually without context. It is good to get a scientist’s take – not just of what may happen, but why. This book does a reasonable job of that.
• 
  Heidi

  This was an interesting book. The views on the future were thought out, argued and presented in an beautiful manner. I especially loved the diversity in the presenters, it is not often one find an almost equal amount of male and female researchers in a book like this.
  If you have an interest in how the future might look like in different fields, take a look at this book. What "scares" and intrigues me the most is how near we are to the science fiction future.
  
  *Copy provided by NetGalley in exchange for an honest review*
• 
  Denise

  This book is more quantity over quality in that it covers a large array of topics. A good premise to other books that are more specialized. Overall pretty interesting, though some of the essays are better done than others as is expected with curated collections such as this. I especially liked the section on solar power, clean energy, and electric cars.
• 
  Tyler Graham

  An accessible glimpse into scientific ideas and discoveries that are either currently shaping our world, or have the potential to do so in the near future. It was a good, quick, thought-provoking read, but dry at times and presumptuous in others. 3.5 stars, rounded down to 3 for the minuscule font the book was written in.
• 
  Nicholas (was Allison)

  *4.3 Stars
  Notes: I read this because I have recently been interested in various nonfiction science books. I will most likely be reading more of them in the future, besides this one, as I am knowledgeable in various science subjects, from doing loads of research about them.
  
  This story is told in various different essay formats, so it is not light reading. I am accustomed to reading scientific research articles and other things (I had to for school), so this was easy for me to read through. I thought that the information in it was explained well, though I did mostly read this solely for the science aspect.
  
  There was no way that I would’ve read this book in less than a week. I thought that it was well written, given that most of the information in it is very factual and precise. I have actually done scientific research that isn’t school-related into futuristic things, so I’m really, very glad that I found this book. I will again add in that I am someone who has been accustomed to reading through dense scientific articles, so I had an easier time reading this than some others might have.
  
  I really did read through all of this novel, and I liked how the technology was described in it. I have recently been researching things related to artificial intelligence, so I could understand most of what was in this book. I’ll probably be remembering this for a while. It was definitely worth my time, and this is coming from someone who is very, very picky with nonfiction books. Most of what I read is fiction, so I am really glad that I read this book when I could.
  
  I am including in here again that I frequently research scientific futuristic things online, so I could understand this easily. This is more of an essay format, so it’s not a typical book. I would recommend this if you’re accustomed to reading through scientific articles because the writing style can get very descriptive. If you’re used to reading through those like I am, then this might be for you.
• 
  Ailith Twinning

  This is betterthan the Aliens collection by just being more interesting.
  
  Anyway, collection of short essays on future stuff -- mostly a highly restrained version. Not bad, but not really book ready. Honestly, I'm generally not a fan of essay collections because they just don't get very deep into their territory. It's hard to even engage with most of it because you have to make too many inferences about missing information, unless you already have it and don't care to argue directly with the author themself.
  
  MEh. One of my biggest problems is that, for many arguments, the format goes "Given: A highly contentious and totally overconfident moral absolute we're not going to talk about" HEY! WAit! Stop! We need to talk about that "Given" dude! So I tend to just get annoyed or combative with a lot of what comes after because it's based on a premise that might be faulty, or a subjective moral judgement I find abhorrent.
  
  But, to be honest, I find techno-libertarianism to be disturbing, reductionist, inhuman, inhumane, and evil. And almost all of Silicon Valley seem to be techno-libertarians.
  
  Seriously, how didn't Star Trek make geeks less. . . cruel? You know what AI I want? A Picard bot that reviews books as Picard man.
• 
  Ilena

  Greatly compiled and easily digestible essays ranging from the scary to the hopeful as human beings continue to use technology to improve the way we live and the world around us. It’s really an interesting think piece because it’s the idea between giving up privacy and a more natural way of living at the expense of what is in the interest of “the greater good.” And that alone brings up some interesting questions. If we genetically engineer food, drugs, and humans, what’s really left? If we’re able to recreate someone’s brain, is it still the same person? Do we even tackle the idea of a soul? The book ends with the ”Apocalypse” chapter: even in our fight for life, does it really matter when Mother Nature is crumbling faster than we can handle? Definitely an interesting read and provided me with further topics/organizations to research to gain an even deeper understanding of the moving parts in the scientific world.
• 
  Cindy

  Altogether, a very fun read that touched on many technologies that will most likely become part of our lives in the near future. There was nothing too out there or kooky in this book, and I'm glad I read it because now I have a lot of new interests to delve into. Like many others, I enjoyed the chapter on smart materials, but I also really liked the chapters about the future of energy and personal medicine. I highlighted a lot of things, including information about Tipler cylinders, which I've never heard of before (they may not even exist).
  The book did start off slow, with global warming, which I probably would have put 3/4 of the way in, but it eventually ramped up about 1/3 of the way through. It obviously (given the length) doesn't go very deep into any of the topics, but I still think it's a worthwhile read because it does give you a good idea of what scientists are currently working on.
• 
  Mario Streger

  I expected more information about the near future, based on facts, but sometimes it got really away from educated guesses.
  He says he also wrote the book "how to rebuild the world after an apocalypse" which, for me, has nothing to do with reality. He goes on saying that a pandemic could disintegrate modern society, and quarantine is too hard in modern times because of intercontinental traveling and packed cities. Civilization would have to start from scratch after such a pandemic. His book was written only 1 year before Covid, and he’s prediction did not come true at all. Economy, society and civilization is still intact, as strong as ever.
  At the end he talks about the possibility of teleportation, based on quantum entanglement. But this effect only gives information on subatomic particles, never macro objects like people.
• 
  Hayden Trenholm

  While some chapters are better and more thought provoking than others, this is a great little primer for those interested in what the future of our planet might look like -- for good or ill. And, for writers, it offers a few story ideas or suggestions for further reading.
  
  By the way, in the chapter on the apocalypse, one of the most likely ways civilization might collapse is an unconstrained pandemic. Just saying.
• 
  Mysteryfan

  A collection of essays on near, far, and very-far futures. There are sections on human futures - genomics and transhumanism - and sections on technology futures - transportation - as well as a section on potential catastrophies. I liked the essay on potential apocalypses. All the writers are British, so it's a slightly different perspective.
• 
  Sean S

  An interesting, although a bit bare bones, perspective on the now and near future to come in the space of science, technology, AI, augmentation, etc. Adds a little self promotion (quantum computing lab) and a non-factual take on the future (last chapter). Good for a cliff notes perspective on the latest trends, and more laden with philosophy and questions than I expected.
• 
  Kelly Jones

  Big topics tackled quite nicely by different scientists. Some make the future seem like a shit show, other show that hope remains in this digital chaos and climate changing world we find ourselves in.
• 
  Kevin

  Great breadth of topics describing some of the most advanced techniques and discoveries summarized to a few pages,sometimes leaving the reader wanting a narration with more thoroughfare. But realistically, what else could they do. Great book
• 
  Scott

  This is a book. parts of it are fascinating. the pandemic part was dated not that it wasn't prescient lol.
  
  Anyway I wouldn't recommend this book to anyone, but I also wouldn't disrecommend it. this was a fun book of fun essays and I don't remember them very well a month later.
• 
  Mehmet Kalaycı

  The subjects are vaguely treated. The assumptions for the future are already pretty well known for someone who is interested in the subject.
  
  I just liked the part about quantum physics which was explained in a clear way. I now understand it a bit better :)