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Soonish
- Ten Emerging Technologies That'll Improve and/or Ruin Everything
- Narrated by: Kelly Weinersmith, Zach Weinersmith
- Length: 10 hrs and 10 mins
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Publisher's summary
From a top scientist and the creator of the hugely popular web comic Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal, a hilarious investigation into future technologies - from how to fling a ship into deep space on the cheap to 3-D organ printing.
What will the world of tomorrow be like? How does progress happen? And why do we not have a lunar colony already? What is the holdup?
In this smart and funny book, celebrated cartoonist Zach Weinersmith and noted researcher Dr. Kelly Weinersmith give us a snapshot of what's coming next - from robot swarms to nuclear fusion powered-toasters. By weaving their own research and interviews with the scientists who are making these advances happen, the Weinersmiths investigate why these technologies are needed, how they would work, and what is standing in their way.
New technologies are almost never the work of isolated geniuses with a neat idea. A given future technology may need any number of intermediate technologies to develop first, and many of these critical advances may appear to be irrelevant when they are first discovered. The journey to progress is full of strange detours and blind alleys that tell us so much about the human mind and the march of civilization. To this end, Soonish investigates 10 different emerging fields, from programmable matter to augmented reality, from space elevators to robotic construction, to show us the amazing world we will have, you know, soonish.
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- Length: 12 hrs and 34 mins
- Unabridged
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Everything All at Once is an exciting, inspiring call to unleash the power of the nerd mindset that exists within us all. Nye believes we'll never be able to tackle our society's biggest, most complex problems if we don't even know how to solve the small ones. Step by step, he shows his listeners the key tools behind his everything-all-at-once approach: radical curiosity, a deep desire for a better future, and a willingness to take the actions needed to make it a reality.
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Bill Nye is awesome, but skip this one
- By Evan on 08-15-17
By: Bill Nye
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13 Things That Don't Make Sense
- The Most Baffling Scientific Mysteries of Our Time
- By: Michael Brooks
- Narrated by: James Adams
- Length: 8 hrs and 58 mins
- Unabridged
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Science starts to get interesting when things don't make sense. Science's best-kept secret is that there are experimental results and reliable data that the most brilliant scientists can neither explain nor dismiss. If history is any precedent, we should look to today's inexplicable results to forecast the future of science. Michael Brooks heads to the scientific frontier to meet 13 modern-day anomalies and discover tomorrow's breakthroughs.
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10 interesting chapters-read epiloge first
- By Stephen on 06-10-09
By: Michael Brooks
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The Department of Mad Scientists
- Inside DARPA, the Path-Breaking Government Agency You've Never Heard Of
- By: Michael Belfiore
- Narrated by: Michael Belfiore
- Length: 10 hrs and 12 mins
- Unabridged
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The first-ever inside look at DARPA - the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency - the maverick and controversial group whose futuristic work has had amazing civilian and military applications, from the Internet to GPS to driverless cars
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meh
- By Patrick on 12-22-09
By: Michael Belfiore
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A Little History of the World
- By: E. H. Gombrich
- Narrated by: Ralph Cosham
- Length: 9 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
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E. H. Gombrich's world history, an international best seller now available in English for the first time, is a text dominated not by dates and facts but by the sweep of experience across the centuries, a guide to humanity's achievements, and an acute witness to its frailties.
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an enlightening book; very well read
- By A.B.Oxford on 06-03-06
By: E. H. Gombrich
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The Complete (Short) Guide to Absolutely Everything
- Adventures in Math and Science
- By: Adam Rutherford, Hannah Fry
- Narrated by: Hannah Fry, Adam Rutherford
- Length: 7 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
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Geneticist Adam Rutherford and mathematician Hannah Fry guide listeners through time and space, through our bodies and brains, showing how emotions shape our view of reality, how our minds tell us lies, and why a mostly bald and curious ape decided to begin poking at the fabric of the universe.
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A great listen and fun way to learn some things
- By R. Mueller on 06-10-23
By: Adam Rutherford, and others
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Herding Hemingway's Cats
- Understanding How Our Genes Work
- By: Kat Arney
- Narrated by: Kat Arney
- Length: 8 hrs and 39 mins
- Unabridged
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The language of genes has become common parlance. We know they make your eyes blue, your hair curly or your nose straight. The media tells us that our genes control the risk of cancer, heart disease, alcoholism or Alzheimer's. The cost of DNA sequencing has plummeted from billions of pounds to a few hundred, and gene-based advances in medicine hold huge promise. So we've all heard of genes, but how do they actually work?
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A non-scientists misguided interpretation
- By AraSevera on 05-15-16
By: Kat Arney
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Beyond
- Our Future in Space
- By: Chris Impey
- Narrated by: Julie McKay
- Length: 9 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
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Beyond dares to imagine a fantastic future for humans in space - and then reminds us that we're already there. Human exploration has been an unceasing engine of technological progress, from the first homo sapiens to leave our African cradle to a future in which mankind promises to settle another world. Beyond tells the epic story of humanity leaving home - and how humans will soon thrive in the vast universe beyond the Earth.
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OTHER WORLDS
- By chetyarbrough.blog on 01-10-16
By: Chris Impey
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The Disappearing Spoon
- And Other True Tales of Madness, Love, and the History of the World from the Periodic Table of the Elements
- By: Sam Kean
- Narrated by: Sean Runnette
- Length: 12 hrs and 34 mins
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Reporter Sam Kean reveals the periodic table as it’s never been seen before. Not only is it one of man's crowning scientific achievements, it's also a treasure trove of stories of passion, adventure, betrayal, and obsession. The infectious tales and astounding details in The Disappearing Spoon follow carbon, neon, silicon, and gold as they play out their parts in human history, finance, mythology, war, the arts, poison, and the lives of the (frequently) mad scientists who discovered them.
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Great Book, Great Narration, But...
- By Henny Button on 09-18-10
By: Sam Kean
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The Lives of a Cell
- Notes of a Biology Watcher
- By: Lewis Thomas
- Narrated by: Grover Gardner
- Length: 4 hrs and 12 mins
- Unabridged
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In The Lives of a Cell, Dr. Lewis Thomas opens up to the listener a universe of knowledge and perception that is perhaps not wholly unfamiliar to the research scientist; but the world he explores is also one of men and women, of complex interrelationships, old ironies, peculiar powers, and intricate languages that give identity to the alienated and direction to the dependent. This remarkable work offers a subtle, bold vision of humankind and the world around us - a sense of what gives life - from a writer who seems to draw grace and strength from the very substance of his subject.
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So enlightening and enjoyable!
- By Flora on 03-15-18
By: Lewis Thomas
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Life’s Ratchet
- How Molecular Machines Extract Order from Chaos
- By: Peter M. Hoffman
- Narrated by: Paul Hodgson
- Length: 9 hrs and 52 mins
- Unabridged
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Story
The cells in our bodies consist of molecules, made up of the same carbon, oxygen, and hydrogen atoms found in air and rocks. But molecules, such as water and sugar, are not alive. So how do our cells - assemblies of otherwise "dead" molecules - come to life, and together constitute a living being? In Life’s Ratchet, physicist Peter M. Hoffmann locates the answer to this age-old question at the nanoscale.
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For biologists to learn single molecule biophysics
- By A Synthetic Biologist on 09-04-14
By: Peter M. Hoffman
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The Brain Electric
- The Dramatic High-Tech Race to Merge Minds and Machines
- By: Malcolm Gay
- Narrated by: Patrick Lawlor
- Length: 8 hrs and 35 mins
- Unabridged
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Leading neuroscience researchers are racing to unlock the secrets of the mind. On the cusp of decoding brain signals that govern motor skills, they are developing miraculous technologies to enable paraplegics and wounded soldiers to move prosthetic limbs, and the rest of us to manipulate computers and other objects through thought alone. These fiercely competitive scientists are vying for Defense Department and venture capital funding, prestige, and great wealth.
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Refreshingly not pop-neuro or pseudoscience
- By Jordon on 06-28-16
By: Malcolm Gay
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How to Speak Science
- Gravity, Relativity, and Other Ideas That Were Crazy Until Proven Brilliant
- By: Bruce Benamran, Stephanie Delozier Strobel
- Narrated by: Braden Wright
- Length: 13 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
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As smartphones, supercomputers, supercolliders, and AI propel us into an ever more unfamiliar future, How to Speak Science takes us on a rollicking historical tour of the greatest discoveries and ideas that make today's cutting-edge technologies possible. Wanting everyone to be able to "speak" science, YouTube science guru Bruce Benamran explains - as accessibly and wittily as in his acclaimed videos - the fundamental ideas of the physical world: matter, life, the solar system, light, electromagnetism, thermodynamics, special and general relativity, and much more.
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Wowzers!
- By Ralph Temblador on 02-15-21
By: Bruce Benamran, and others
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Regarded as one of the brightest young scientists of his generation, Lewis Dartnell proposes that the key to preserving civilization in an apocalyptic scenario is to provide a quickstart guide, adapted to cataclysmic circumstances. The Knowledge describes many of the modern technologies we employ, but first it explains the fundamentals upon which they are built. The Knowledge is a brilliantly original guide to the fundamentals of science and how it built our modern world as well as a thought experiment about the very idea of scientific knowledge itself.
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From taking the knee to transgender rights, wedge issues are everywhere in modern life - dividing opinions, polarising debate and tearing friendships and families apart. Even something as seemingly innocuous as wearing a facemask can provoke vicious disagreement. But how did we get here, and what does it mean for society going forward? In this gripping series, acclaimed writer and journalist Jon Ronson searches for the origin stories of the hostilities - the pebbles thrown in the pond, creating the ripples that led to where we are today.
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She Has Her Mother's Laugh presents a profoundly original perspective on what we pass along from generation to generation. Charles Darwin played a crucial part in turning heredity into a scientific question, and yet he failed spectacularly to answer it. The birth of genetics in the early 1900s seemed to do precisely that. Gradually, people translated their old notions about heredity into a language of genes. We need a new definition of what heredity is and, through Carl Zimmer's lucid exposition and storytelling, this resounding tour de force delivers it.
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Changed this strict genetic determinist's mind
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How would Saturn’s rings look from a spaceship sailing just above them? If you were falling into a black hole, what’s the last thing you’d see before your spaghettification? What would it be like to visit the faraway places we currently experience only through high-powered telescopes and robotic emissaries? Faster-than-light travel may never be invented, but we can still take the scenic route through the universe with renowned astronomer and science communicator Philip Plait.
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great book, Candidly narrated
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Humble Pi
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Exploring and explaining a litany of glitches, near misses, and mathematical mishaps involving the internet, big data, elections, street signs, lotteries, the Roman Empire, and an Olympic team, Matt Parker uncovers the bizarre ways math trips us up, and what this reveals about its essential place in our world. Getting it wrong has never been more fun.
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Fascinating & enlightening even for da mathphobic✏️
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How to Avoid a Climate Disaster
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Bill Gates shares what he's learned in more than a decade of studying climate change and investing in innovations to address the problems, and sets out a vision for how the world can build the tools it needs to get to zero greenhouse gas emissions. Bill Gates explains why he cares so deeply about climate change and what makes him optimistic that the world can avoid the most dire effects of the climate crisis. Gates says, "We can work on a local, national, and global level to build the technologies, businesses, and industries to avoid the worst impacts of climate change."
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Be curious, not furious
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Miyazakiworld
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A 13th-century toxic jungle, a bathhouse for tired gods, a red haired fish girl, and a furry woodland spirit - what do these have in common? They all spring from the mind of Hayao Miyazaki, one of the greatest living animators, known worldwide for films such as My Neighbor Totoro, Princess Mononoke, Spirited Away, Howl’s Moving Castle, and The Wind Rises. Japanese culture and animation scholar Susan Napier explores the life and art of this extraordinary Japanese filmmaker to provide a definitive account of his oeuvre.
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An amazing life
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What listeners say about Soonish
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- See Reverse
- 04-16-18
Really Good-ish!
This book does a great job of walking through the technology trends of the current age, diving in to the consequences without getting as deep into it as Homo Deus: A Brief History of Tomorrow. The book is technically sound, interesting, well-written, and funny.
Fair warning: As an audiobook, you'll hear "footnote" a lot during the performance. You'll probably get used to it, but if you can't get past the steady interruption you'll be annoyed.
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- Amazon Customer
- 01-01-18
As fascinating as it is not funny
Unlike some reviewers I have not heard of Zach and Kelly before this but I thought they did a great job with this book! It covered a breadth of scientific topics and explained things exceptionally well. Depending on your knowledge, some sections will probably be a little more rudimentary than others.
While I appreciated the light hearted approach to subjects covered, I honestly didn’t find their jokes funny, they fell flat on most occasions. If you look at the goodreads reviews you’ll realize I’m not the only one who thought this. However, this didn’t take away from the book (most of the time) because they were superb at keeping the subject matter fascinating and I learned a lot and think most people who read this will too!
Audible vs the print version? While I love listening to audiobooks sometimes I do feel books are better as print. I thought this would be one of them due to the comics. However, I don’t think you need this book in the print as the comics are few and far between. Plus Kelly (narrates most of the book) does a great job! Well worth your credit.
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23 people found this helpful
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- Bootstraps Bill
- 01-04-18
Entertaining and Easy Listen*
Were the concepts of this book easy to follow, or were they too technical?
The concepts in this book were very easy to follow. The only thing I found annoying were the persistent footnotes that interrupted the flow of the book. I guess these are to be expected with this type of content.
Which character – as performed by Kelly Weinersmith and Zach Weinersmith – was your favorite?
Both Kelly and Zach performed great. I wish we could have heard more of Zach though.
Did Soonish inspire you to do anything?
Soonish did not inspire me to do anything, or dive deeper into the rabbit hole[s]. It just was fun and entertaining.
Any additional comments?
Addition comments/suggestions - Way less footnotes.
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18 people found this helpful
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- Lauri
- 11-23-17
Bravo, encore!
There is absolutely nothing to dislike about this book.
The content, as complex and confounding as it is, was easy to understand and it really got me thinking.
The presentation, masterful. I love and share your sense of humor and will hold up with you during the uprising in 2027 (perhaps in a coffee shop in Bowling Green). If my science classes were taught by Zach & Kelly I would have had a much greater understanding of all things science and probably be continuing Einsteins work today.
Footnote: It’s my opinion and I have a right to it!
Please make more stuff like this...
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17 people found this helpful
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- Ken Montgomery
- 02-02-18
Content good - reader annoying
Is there anything you would change about this book?
The content is good and interesting and perhaps inspiring.... The author choose to read and I found hard to listen to. Listen to the sample recording before purchasing. I recommend the other co-author give it a go, or find a professional.
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15 people found this helpful
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- Maarten
- 01-23-18
Interesting subjects, needlessly humorized
The spacefaring and nanobot-material chapters were truly great. The biomass and organprinting chapters not so much. But I can see that is purely based on my personal interest, so shouldn't hold you back. I liked the structure of the book. All the chapters are sort of standalone, which made for an easy to understand book.
I found the humor to be too much though. They try hard to make subjects more exciting by joking a lot. But for their audience (nerdy popular science people), they should've known that rocket science doesn't need jokes. Nerds don't find rocket science boring! Also, I think they should have hired a professional narrator for recording it. It shows that narrating is not for everyone.
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13 people found this helpful
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- Placeholder
- 12-09-17
Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Future
The Weinersmiths’ book is to popular science/futurology what John Oliver is to investigative journalism
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11 people found this helpful
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- Richard Fitzpatrick
- 12-29-18
I cannot listen to this
Had I known this was going to be someones debut as a comic I would have skipped over it. Really disappointed.
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9 people found this helpful
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- Lucas
- 12-11-17
Read This Book Soon! (-ish)
This book is at least an order of magnitude more fascinating than funny, which is impressive because it is quite funny! I gained a much less clear, but much more nuanced and accurate idea of what four future holds. If a person likes new technology at all in any form, I highly recommend this book.
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6 people found this helpful
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- Ryan
- 05-01-18
Not what I was hoping for.
Maybe it is the performance, but this came off like someone reading a research paper on detailing technologies inside and out. Great if you want to engineer a space settlement, not so great if you want thoughtful insight into these advances potential real world applications. FOOTNOTE (as they constantly say) this book might be better read than listened to, idk.
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4 people found this helpful