Big disappointment - arrogant and naive.
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This is not a book for the scientifically aware free thinker. If you don't want a neo-Malthusian lecture about whatever doom is in store for the world then miss out the first 200 pages and a good proportion of the rest of this nonsense as well. From this, it comes as no surprise to learn that Mr. Martin is a "glowarmist" (global warming alarmist), although it is infuriating to then be subjected to the associated Litany.
But perhaps we get what we pay for. The hub of this book is a prediction of life to come in the present Century. Have any predictions of 20th Century life written in the early 1900s been anything else but amusing novels in the light of present knowledge? I suspect that this one will follow the trend of its predecessors.
There are some interesting points, notably about IT developments to come, nuclear power, and the discussion of property rights in the 3rd World, but most of the content is naive and arrogant, not to mention inaccurate. For example, we learn that viruses are susceptible to antibiotics, ethylene is a hormone, and how the Zulu defeated the British army.
In any case, the reader will become fed up of dredging through the organic, sustainable, Malthusian offerings and the interminable mention of "Gaia", way before they get to the good bits.
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Disappointing - needs a good editor
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I really wanted to like this book, but I found it a big disappointment.
Yes, its heart is in the right place: it provides plenty of reasons why our current way of life is dangerously unsustainable, and it has a pleasing open mind towards some of the more radical options for solutions (as well as ideas such as rejuvenation medicine, the Singularity, transhumanism, and life extension). I also learned something new from nearly every chapter (though there's a lot of claims that lack sufficient references.)
However, there's a great deal of repetition and overlap between the chapters. The book could easily have been chopped down to half its size without losing value. Also, there's often a grand naivety in the hopes pronounced for the future.
For probably the best book on analysing the challenges of the 21st century, I recommend instead "The upside of down" by Thomas Homer Dixon.
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Very good but too repetitive.
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Great, informative, enlightening about where we are and are potentially heading as a species on this earth.
Definitely forgot to edit it though!
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An excellent introduction to the world.
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I found this book to be compelling, extremely interesting and motivating. It is simply a brief, non-political overview of our world, and some entirely forseeable possibilities for our future.
If you do not care about your descendants, if you are uninterested by the world and if you do not wish to learn about yourself and give meaning to your life, then this book is not for you.
In response to the review posted by 'Clement Wether': You suggest that computing technology is outside of Martin's area of expertise. A thorough reading of Page 2, Paragraph 4 of the Preface will reveal the following quote: "...I joined IBM and was trained to design computer systems...' as well as several other pieces of information that would prove your suggestion false.
Anyone interested in the world, who hasn't already made their mind up about it should take a close look at this book.
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Ironically fat
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Given that this is a book about the tendency of our current virulent form of capitalism to waste materials and to encourage lifestyles without a view to their sustainability on a planet with, finally, finite resources, it is remarkably, indeed, scandalously, over-weight and baggy and with even cursorary editing might have been whittled down to one tenth its published volume. As well as being repetitive, it is, in places, banal, and when the author strays outside his area of expertise, i.e. computing technology, ludicrously naive. The sections on religion and on culture as drivers of human conduct and behaviour wouldn't pass muster in an A Level sociology or psychology class. He has very little plausible or interesting to say about the ways in which information and computer technology are likely to impact on cultural change, because his model of human motivation is so limited.
The most chilling aspect of this book is that an author, who is at once so unsophisticated and alarmist in his analysis, should garner such extraordinary reviews from a collection of *eminent* scientists and movers & shakers, happy to puff the edition. If these people, who are in positions of influence and power, sincerely believe in their endorsements of this piece of rune-casting, we've got real problems looming - even if they're not the ones predicted by Martin himself.
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