Our Molecular Future: How Nanotechnology, Robotics, Genetics and Artificial Intelligence Will Transform Our World

by Douglas Mulhall

Book Overview

What Alvin Toffler's Future Shock was to the 20th century, Our Molecular Future will be to the 21st century.What will happen to our jobs, health care, and investments when the molecular revolution hits?How might artificial intelligence transform our lives?How can molecular technologies help us cope with climate changes, earthquakes, and other extreme natural threats?Our Molecular Future explores some intriguing possibilities that answer these questions...

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1573929921
• ISBN13: 9781573929929
• Release Date: July 2002
• Publisher: Prometheus Books
• Length: 350 Pages
• Weight: 1.65 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.3" x 6.2" x 9.2"

Customer Reviews

Great Book about Nanotechnology.

I have just finished reading this book, and i must say wow! This is a amazing read from start to end. The book goes over what Nanotechnology is now, and what possiblities are there in the future. I would recommend this book to anyone who is interested in reading about Nanotechnology.

Get up to speed on nanotechnology and your future

If there is a better book that can get one up to speed on the ramifications of nanotechnology, then I'd like to know about it. The media does a poor job on covering nanotechnology. Forget the media; read this book instead. The author was on the Art Bell show recently. Three hours was not enough time to do this book and subject justice. Art Bell fans will love this book. It covers many of the catastrophe scenarios that Art and George Noory talk about. Art and George spend little time talking about nanotechnology. Again, read this book and you'll enjoy their next show on nanotechnology even more. If you believe this book, then nanotechnology will change your life like nothing that has ever come before. It's like reading a science fiction novel, only minus the fiction.

The 21st century will not frighten the horses.

For optimists and those who find life in the 21st century a complete source of exhiliration, and for those who are indulging themselves in the dizzying pace of technological advancement, this book is sheer delight. Speculative in some points, and gaurded in others, the author has written a book that takes the reader through a future that is not far distant, and a future that is now. Genetic engineering, artificial intelligence, nanoscale computing, and robotics are here, right now, and advances in these areas show every sign of being explosive. The author asks us to imagine a conversation between a farmer in the year 1899 and a person who rolls up in an early automobile. The driver tells the farmer what is ahead in the next decades, such as playing golf on the moon, his children being able to drive themselves faster than a locomotive, his cows milked using machines, etc. The author then replays the same conversation but with a farmer of the year 2001, he automobile is replaced by a flying car: golf will be played on Mars, and egg hatcheries will be designed by computers that do a better job then humans, agriculture will be replaced by food synthesizers, etc. With these hypothetical conversations, the author asks us to take stock in our skepticism that the future he outlines in the book it too far-fetched. He is certainly correct in his reasoning. There are too many instances of "famous last words" when it comes to the future of a particular technological development. If one takes cognizance of the many developments that are now occuring simultaneously, it would be hard to tell exactly which ones are going to prevail. For example, when it comes to the enhancement of human capabilities, I see a competition between genetic engineering and artificial intelligence arising in the future. Both are strategies to improve human mental and physical capabilities, but are essentially different ways of course to meet these ends. The marketplace, and not government, will hopefully determine the outcome of this competition, but it, may disappear entirely if new methodologies, up to this time unknown, dilute the efficacy of these approaches. In addition, human factors engineering, which is not really emphasized in the book, may determine the outcome of particular technologies. Voice recognition and command in computers for example, may be too annoying to actually employ in the workplace, if open cubicle environments are still in place. The resulting noise level of everyone talking to their computers might be too irritating. Federal and state health requirements also have a repressive influence on the employing of new technology. With the growing hostility towards genetic engineering, governments will be stepping up their regulations and this might dampen the ever-growing amplitude of 21st century development. The author is aware of these attitudes towards technology, and so he attempts to offer a different sort of justification for employing them, part

Nanobacteria, NanoMedicine, Nanotechnology, Oh My!

Doug Mulhall is a bold, fluent & brillant writer that is able to communicate with both lay persons and scientists alike....a must read! His description of nanotechnological developments lead us by the hand into the future gently, then exposes the potential harsh realities and wonders that will be available to us. With his command of writing, he explains difficult concepts by making them real. I particularly appreciated him writing about an exciting startup, NanobacLabs Pharmaceuticals that has developed nanobiotics to fight nanobacterial infections. The read led me to a physician that wrote a prescription for NanobacTX that appears to be eradicating my heart disease! I not only enjoyed the book, but he may have ultimately saved my life.....sign me, GRATEFUL.

An Amazing view of the future. Great Book!

Fascinating glimpse into the future.Rarely does one find a book with as many insights into the future as Our Molecular Future. Page after page there are concepts which are entirely foreign to you before reading them, and then seem so self-evident after you have understood them. Clearly, not everything that is depicted in the book is going to come to pass in our lifetimes. However, this was the best book I have read for years. Not since Godel, Escher, Bach have I thought so much while reading!