Science Book Reviews

The Next Fifty Years

'To undertake long range predictions is Promethean: The fate of predictions, if not of the predictor, is like to be unhappy. Still, the challenge is hard to ignore.'

The Next Fifty Years, edited by John Brockman, is a collection of twenty-five essays in which some of today's most eminent scientists speculate about the accomplishments to be expected in science and technology by 2050. Written for scientists and non-scientists alike, the range of topics covered includes both practical and theoretical advances in fields as diverse as genetics and molecular medicine, information technology, mathematics, physics and space travel, neuroscience and psychology. However, there is a notable exclusion of any essays on the future of conservation or earth and environmental sciences, and there is only one essay on chemistry. The editor offers no explanation for why he chose the topics he did, and while from today's vantage point it does seem as if some of the greatest resources and energy are being applied to these fields, readers with other interests and concerns might feel somewhat marginalised.

Most of these essays are extremely optimistic about the future and how our lives will be improved by increased scientific understanding and technological achievements. However, optimism is rarely coupled with an examination of the new obstacles these advances will create or how we should overcome them, though the coverleaf does promise that the book 'examines the social and political ramifications of the strange new worlds to come'. What is most fascinating about these essays are the similarities in the questions being addressed, such as "what and where is life?", the philosophies being developed, such as evolutionary psychology and computer aided designs (CADs), and the methodologies being applied, such as functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) and virtual unreality, to conquer today's nagging questions for tomorrow's resolutions. Over the years, many individual scientists have heralded a forthcoming unification of disparate fields and the triumphant emergence of new ways of analysing our world; reading these individual voices together powerfully reinforces the realisation that the future era of science is bearing down upon us now.

On the whole, these essays are interesting, intelligent and thought-provoking discourses, but with few surprises. They speak of the victories over the questions being asked at the present and highlight the emergence of sub-disciplines and trains of thoughts that are now in their infancy. This is a book more about the state of up-and-coming research than the concerns fifty years henceforth, and with good reason too. We will have to wait for the innovators of the future to be born or to finish school in order to know what hot topics will be on the cards fifty years from now. Perhaps including the thoughts of some of the more daring and imaginative science fiction writers who do not have their reputations to put on the line or their agendas to push forward would have given us more of a adventurous peek into the future.