Soonish (ten Emerging Technologies That'll Improve And/or Ruin Everything)

By (author) Weinersmith, Kelly; By (author) Weinersmith Zach
Description
The instant New York Times bestseller!

A Wall Street Journal Best Science Book of the Year!

A Popular Science Best Science Book of the Year! 

From a top scientist and the creator of the hugely popular web comic Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal, a hilariously illustrated investigation into future technologies -- from how to fling a ship into deep space on the cheap to 3D organ printing
 
What will the world of tomorrow be like? How does progress happen? And why do we not have a lunar colony already? What is the hold-up?

In this smart and funny book, celebrated cartoonist Zach Weinersmith and noted researcher Dr. Kelly Weinersmith give us a snapshot of what''s coming next -- from robot swarms to nuclear fusion powered-toasters. By weaving their own research, interviews with the scientists who are making these advances happen, and Zach''s trademark comics, the Weinersmiths investigate why these technologies are needed, how they would work, and what is standing in their way.

New technologies are almost never the work of isolated geniuses with a neat idea. A given future technology may need any number of intermediate technologies to develop first, and many of these critical advances may appear to be irrelevant when they are first discovered. The journey to progress is full of strange detours and blind alleys that tell us so much about the human mind and the march of civilization.

To this end, Soonish investigates ten different emerging fields, from programmable matter to augmented reality, from space elevators to robotic construction, to show us the amazing world we will have, you know, soonish.

Soonish is the perfect gift for science lovers for the holidays!
Review quote
“Kelly and Zach Weinersmith''s SOONISH is an exceptional science book: it concerns itself with ten(ish) coming technologies that hold enormous, potentially world-changing promise (and peril), and it delves into each of those subjects with admirable depth, including all the caveats and unknowns, and still keeps the excitement intact.”—Cory Doctorow, Boing-Boing

“A great book. [SOONISH] is wonderful to read.”—Ira Flatow, Science Friday

“Soonish addresses heady scientific concepts in an accessible, readable way. . . . Part of the benefit of the book is that it doesn''t promise we''ll all be sipping printed cocktails on the moon in 2067. The Weinersmiths just lay out, clearly and with a wry sense of humor, exactly what it might take to get us there.”—Tasha Robinson, NPR.org

“[A] wild glimpse into a future that may or may not involve space elevators and brain-computer interfaces and programmable matter. . . . [Kelly and Zach Weinersmith] sift through mountains of literature and pick the brains of the researchers at the forefront of things like bioprinting (like 3-D printing, only more bio) and augmented reality (like reality, only more augmented), turning a skeptical yet exuberant eye toward the technologies of tomorrow.”—Matt Simon, Wired

“Beautiful.”  —Forbes

“Fans of science, math, or medicine; gamers; and those who love the weird and wonderful will gravitate to [SOONISH].”—School Library Journal

“An entertaining look at future tech wizardry, from space tourism and asteroid mining to nuclear fusion power, matter replication, synthetic biology and direct brain-computer interfaces. . . . The text is very well-researched, with a casual, friendly style (“Tinkering with the language of life. What could go wrong?”), and color cartoons add a wry counterpoint to the narrative of a future that, as always, might be utopia or disaster.”—Steven Poole, W