Visions; How Science Will Revolutionize the 21st Century

New York: Anchor Books/Doubleday, 1997. First Anchor Books Edition [stated]. First printing [stated]. Hardcover. Very good/Good. Andrea Brizzi (Author photograph). xii, 403, [1] pages. Illustrations. Notes. Recommended Reading. Index. Autographed sticker on DJ. Signed with sentiment on the fep, reads Best wishes for the future! M Kaku. DJ has wear , tears, chips and soiling, with sticker residue on back. Michio Kaku (born January 24, 1947) is an American theoretical physicist, futurist, and popularizer of science (science communicator). He is a professor of theoretical physics in the City College of New York and CUNY Graduate Center. Kaku is the author of several books about physics and related topics and has made frequent appearances on radio, television, and film. He is also a regular contributor to his own blog, as well as other popular media outlets. For his efforts to bridge science and science fiction, he is a 2021 Sir Arthur Clarke Lifetime Achievement Awardee. His books Physics of the Impossible (2008), Physics of the Future (2011), The Future of the Mind (2014), and The God Equation: The Quest for a Theory of Everything (2021) became New York Times best sellers. Kaku has hosted several television specials for the BBC, the Discovery Channel, the History Channel, and the Science Channel. Kaku is widely known as a science and physics outreach specialist. He has written books and appeared on many television programs as well as film. He hosts a weekly radio program. This is a book about the limitless future of science and technology, focussing on the next 100 years and beyond. Kaku examines how quantum mechanics, biogenetics, and artificial intelligence will dramatically alter science and the way we will live in the 21st century. In Visions, Dr. Kaku examines in vivid detail how the three scientific revolutions that profoundly reshaped the twentieth century--the quantum, biogenetic, and computer revolutions--will transform the way we live in the twenty-first century. The fundamental elements of matter and life--the particles of the atom and the nucleus of the cell--have now been decoded, closing one of the great chapters of scientific history. But this is just the preface to an even more far-reaching scientific revolution, as we make the transition from being passive observers of the mysteries of nature to becoming masters of nature, able to manipulate matter, life, and intelligence to remold the world around us. In the first part of Visions, Dr. Kaku discusses the cyber future, when millions of microprocessors are scattered throughout our environment; when the iron principle that has ruled the computer industry, Moore's Law, finally collapses, forcing scientists to adopt startling new designs like DNA computers and quantum computers; and when artificial intelligence systems finally arrive. In the next section, Dr. Kaku shows how the decoding of DNA will allow us to conquer devastating genetic diseases, defeat many cancers at the molecular level, synthesize new medicines using virtual reality, grow new organs, conquer aging and reshape our genetic inheritance. Finally, he explores how quantum physicists will perfect new ways to harness the cosmic energy of the universe--from molecular machines to supermagnets that may energize a second industrial revolution, to powerful fusion engines that one day may take us to the stars. What makes Michio Kaku's vision of the future of science so compelling and authoritative is that it is based on the groundbreaking research already underway at leading laboratories around the world. Weaving interviews with over 150 scientists--several of them Nobel laureates--into a rich, inspiring narrative, Dr. Kaku reveals the growing consensus among key scientists about how science will likely evolve through the early, middle, and late years of the twenty-first century. An intimate, thrilling tour through the next century of science, Visions is a riveting, essential map to how scientists will reshape our future. Derived from a Publishers Weekly article: Exhibiting a rare clarity of scientific thought and exposition, this brilliant futurist catalogue from the renowned physicist and author of the much-praised Hyperspace convincingly predicts where the next hundred years of technological advancement will take us. Science, for Kaku, is on the verge of a new age in which the once separate "Three Pillars of Modern Science"--quantum physics, computer science and biotechnology--will converge, creating a startling synergy. The outcome will affect us right down to our DNA. We will make a technological and conceptual transition "from being observers of the dance of nature to becoming active choreographers" in a world of seamless human-computer interactions, where damaged, cancer-causing genes are repaired by molecular machines and where cyborgs will grow their own chips. But Kaku moves far beyond the usual futuristic fare of gadgets and gizmos, offering up the hard science principles and soft science social impact of the advances he describes. A careful reader will discern moral questions and responsibilities that Kaku fails to address adequately. Based in part on interviews with more than 150 scientists, many of them Nobel laureates, the book nevertheless offers a coherent and fully realized picture of our increasingly mediated future lives. It succeeds in drawing a time line for the appearance of everything from "wearable" computers to the tenth dimension, and it does so with clear-sighted analysis and a contagious sense of wonder. In a spellbinding narrative that skillfully weaves together cutting-edge research among today's foremost scientists, theoretical physicist Michio Kaku--author of the bestselling book Hyperspace--presents a bold, exhilarating adventure into the science of tomorrow.