Physics of the Future

How Science Will Shape Human Destiny and Our Daily Lives by the Year 2100

By: Michio Kaku

Narrated by: Feodor Chin

Length: 15 hrs and 39 mins

Publisher's summary

Imagine, if you can, the world in the year 2100.

In Physics of the Future, Michio Kaku - the New York Times best-selling author of Physics of the Impossible - gives us a stunning, provocative, and exhilarating vision of the coming century based on interviews with over 300 of the world’s top scientists who are already inventing the future in their labs.

The result is the most authoritative and scientifically accurate description of the revolutionary developments taking place in medicine, computers, artificial intelligence, nanotechnology, energy production, and astronautics.

In all likelihood, by 2100 we will control computers via tiny brain sensors and, like magicians, move objects around with the power of our minds. Artificial intelligence will be dispersed throughout the environment, and Internet-enabled contact lenses will allow us to access the world's information base or conjure up any image we desire in the blink of an eye.

Meanwhile, cars will drive themselves using GPS, and if room-temperature superconductors are discovered, vehicles will effortlessly fly on a cushion of air, coasting on powerful magnetic fields and ushering in the age of magnetism.

Using molecular medicine, scientists will be able to grow almost every organ of the body and cure genetic diseases. Millions of tiny DNA sensors and nanoparticles patrolling our blood cells will silently scan our bodies for the first sign of illness, while rapid advances in genetic research will enable us to slow down or maybe even reverse the aging process, allowing human life spans to increase dramatically.

In space, radically new ships - needle-sized vessels using laser propulsion - could replace the expensive chemical rockets of today and perhaps visit nearby stars.

Advances in nanotechnology may lead to the fabled space elevator, which would propel humans hundreds of miles above the earth’s atmosphere at the push of a button. But these astonishing revelations are only the tip of the iceberg. Kaku also discusses emotional robots, antimatter rockets, X-ray vision, and the ability to create new life-forms, and he considers the development of the world economy. He addresses the key questions: Who are the winner and losers of the future? Who will have jobs, and which nations will prosper?

All the while, Kaku illuminates the rigorous scientific principles, examining the rate at which certain technologies are likely to mature, how far they can advance, and what their ultimate limitations and hazards are.

Synthesizing a vast amount of information to construct an exciting look at the years leading up to 2100, Physics of the Future is a thrilling, wondrous ride through the next 100 years of breathtaking scientific revolution.

©2011 Michio Kaku (P)2011 Random House

Critic reviews

"Following in the footsteps of Leonardo da Vinci and Jules Verne, Kaku, author of a handful of books about science, looks into the not-so-distant future and envisions what the world will look like. It should be an exciting place, with driverless cars, Internet glasses, universal translators, robot surgeons, the resurrection of extinct life forms, designer children, space tourism, a manned mission to Mars, none of which turn out to be as science-fictiony as they sound. In fact, the most exciting thing about the book is the fact that most of the developments Kaku discusses can be directly extrapolated from existing technologies. Robot surgeons and driverless cars, for example, already exist in rudimentary forms. Kaku, a physics professor and one of the originators of the string field theory (an offshoot of the more general string theory), draws on current research to show how, in a very real sense, our future has already been written. The book's lively, user-friendly style should appeal equally to fans of science fiction and popular science." (Booklist)

Pure techno-optimism

The rosiest possible future, with little or no downside and zero skepticism. If you take it with that in mind, it’s a fine book.

I've listened many times and can't get enough

Wonderfully written. Can't wait to download all of his work. Listened many times and can't get enough of this book.

Thought-provoking exploration of the future!

loved the narration and ideas. particularly appealing for budding engineers dreaming of building all the cool things mentioned in the book.

Very Good, but contradictory at times

The book is very good but Dr. Kaku at times would make an assertion and then use an example wildly outside of the claim. Definitely worth a read/listen.

Great voice performance and scientific knowledge

Great book. Michio never disappoints and always gives me ideas for my own writing as sci-fi novelist.

Listen over &over til i made myself select another

What made the experience of listening to Physics of the Future the most enjoyable?

So much to know said so interestingly there was never a moment i failed to want to repeat to hear every paragraph over & over. I have listened to this book every day for a week & will relisten many more times perhaps to 2100 waiting for all the predictions to come true!!!

What other book might you compare Physics of the Future to and why?

All of Malcome Gladwell's books since they changed the way i see my world!!!

Have you listened to any of Feodor Chin’s other performances before? How does this one compare?

Chin is the best reader I have ever heard,,, truely thought it was read by the author since the reader seemed to impart the knowledge in a first-hand manner. I'm supprised Chin did not interview all the Physists that contributed the future theories the author wrote in this outstanding book, brilliantly read.

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

Yes!!! I listen over & over ,,, i'll never put it away. Can't think of another book i so want to hear endlessly.

Any additional comments?

I truly did not want this book to end; I saw the author on CNN answering a few questions the least of what was answered in this book. Loved seeing & hearing the author ,,, too bad CNN did such a poor job of interviewing so very little was learned by the public about what the author has to offer.

Michio is always good

Michio Kaku is always a good listen. I only have one disagreement with him and that's the issue of the US going back to product production. I think we'll eventually have to in most fields to secure a healthy economy. There's just too many people that lack a higher education in this country that could be left behind in an ever increasingly intellectually driven job market. Relying on overseas markets to produce goods has weakened our economy and caused a huge separation in the classes. This trend, if continued, will eventually create a lower class of Americans that will become so poor they'll become wards of the government. In this year 2011 45% of the population didn't pay taxes. We need to turn this around before it's too late. Remember it isn't us and them in this country. We live in a fish bowl. Everyone affects the whole system. Crap in one corner of the bowl and eventually it'll contaminate the whole bowl.

Get it, you'll love it

this is a great read, all content no filler. my kind of book. you gotta love a book thats actually about what the cover and title suggest. hehe

Some new information / Some old information

So I adore Michio Kaku. he has a way of explaining physics that anyone can understand, and this book does that just as well as his others. the Narrator though not Kaku, makes me think / feel like I am listening to him at one of his lectures.
With in the material you find some good information about where we are and where we could be going in the future of physics and even some in the understanding of the human mind. some of this however is a repeat of what is in Physics of the Impossible. If you haven't read/listened to that I recommend it, but some will be a repeat of this, though it goes into greater details of the various civilizations break out.

Found I already knew most of what is in here

I think this would be a fantastic book for people who are interested in the future and science generally, but who do not follow future trends very closely. For someone like myself, who reads a ton of science fiction, reads scientific magazines and watches lots of science documentaries, there was not a lot of stuff in here that I didn’t already know.

[I listened to this as an audio book performed by Feodor Chin. The narrator did a very good job, although I did speed up the audio to 1.25 speed because I found it a bit slow going.]