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Originally Posted by cassidym
Just finished Physics of the Future and it was a very interesting read. Normally, I don't read futurist books as the authors ofter get it wrong. But Kaku addresses this in the Introduction. He points out that those who get it wrong usually fail to interview scientists. Those who get it right usually do. And he interviewed 300 for this book.
He also points out that futurists usually fail to consider Cave Man thinking. As he points out, we are all the products of evolution and ancient ways still influence us. Thus the futurists who predicted that the internet, right after it was invented, would be used exclusively for the exchange of academic information got it wrong. They failed to consider our cave man need for social connections and thus missed this powerful social aspect of the internet.
He divides the next century up into three groups (Near term: Now to 2030; Mid term: 2030 to 2070 and long term: 2070 to 2100.) He covers entertainment, energy, space, medicine, travel and other areas for all three periods and what he has to say is very interesting and pretty believable.
I highly recommend it.
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Interesting. I read a book, about the internet, in 1995, (published in 1993), that claimed the world wide web (www) had no value for the average person. Usenet and ftp were the future. The statement was obsolete by the time I read it. I guess that was why the book was on sale.