The Next 500 Years: Life in the Coming Millennium

by Adrian Berry

Book Overview

Could Galileo, Leonardo da Vinci, Christopher Columbus, even the incredible visionary Jules Verne, have imagined the late 20th century world? That's the grand task that Adrian Berry has set for... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 071673009X
• ISBN13: 9780716730095
• Release Date: January 1996
• Publisher: W.H. Freeman & Company
• Length: 338 Pages
• Weight: 1.40 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.1" x 6.4" x 9.3"

Customer Reviews

Filled with interesting speculations- absurdities or not

In one sense it is impossible to take seriously a book which tells us what the future five - hundred years from now is going to look like. The author Adrian Berry claims the more distant the future the more likely the predictions about it will be true. But I somehow relying on perhaps a more primitive sense, and a knowledge of the unpredictability of human history , tend to think otherwise. So I regard this work as a work of speculation- and I read it for interesting ideas of which there are many. Berry predicts that the future will among other things contain the following: " The ever -increasing growth of wealth, the storage of human personalities on computer disks for retrieval after death, that we may be succeeded by intelligent robots; the farming of the sea, the coming of another Ice Age, the colonization of the Moon, of Mars and of the asteroids; and ultimately the building of starships" Notice that Berry sneaks in here one most important prediction as if it were just another item on the list i.e. the prediction about personalities being stored on computer- disks. This is a prediction, I personally think is nonsense as I believe that the idea of a 'personality' without a body is an absurdity. Berry considers the five hundred years in two parts- one as to what will happen on earth, and the second as to what will happen extraterrestially. Berry makes the prediction that there will be colonies on Mars, on the Moon, on asteroids. He believes it will give Mankind ( or its successor robotic - intelligence) a security we do not have today i.e. if one point is wiped out there will be no problems with the others in the distance going on. He believes by the way that these space- colonization efforts will be done privately, and that in the distant future there will be no government and politicians. This prospect is apparently an important element in his optimism about the human future. But it too seems to me more wishful thinking than anything else. For my sense is that any organization and use of resources will require policy, collective decision, some form of goverment and leadership. One interesting chapter , the second from the end, is on the question of whether we are alone in the universe or not. The "Where are they?" question of Fermi. He provides Sagan's arguments as to why there are most likely billions of intelligent creatures. But also provides information and argument of the critics who say that we have absolutely no sign that there is anyone intelligent out there. Berry also seems to feel that once we are all scientifically enlightened there will be no 'religion' as we know it today. As with so many of these speculations there is a certain 'thinness' in the whole picture of human life presented. The actual texture and feel of human life with all its passions and pains , is not in this kind of literature. For that we need to read books about the past, the truly great books of mankind- and not the lesser ones about the future.

Thought Provoking and Not Quite Sci-Fi

I was enjoying this book from the first chapter, where the author totally destroys the "greenhouse" effect from a purely scientific point of view. I was saying to myslef, 'hey, this guy is ok...'Then, in chapter 2, he goes on to theorize that Jesus was not resurrected from the tomb, but was instead eaten by hungry dogs who were used to foraging for food among the recently departed. Oh boy. Did I finish the book, yes, and I read it with a bit more critical eye. In fact, I went back and re-read the first chapter. So, what does this past have to do with his observations of the next 500 years?You'll have to read the book.But, let me say that it was an enjoyable read, and I found his frequent validation of sci-fi writers ideas and theories, mixed in with pure sciece to be a fun way to have written the book.

500 years in a matter of hours

The future is demonstrated through pure scientific evidence. A must for those who wonder what the coming millenium holds for the human race. I only wish I could invest in it.