Where's My Jetpack?

A Guide to the Amazing Science Fiction Future That Never Arrived

By: Daniel H. Wilson Ph.D.

Narrated by: Stefan Rudnicki

Length: 3 hrs and 40 mins

Publisher's summary

It's the 21st century, and let's be honest: things are a little disappointing. Despite every World's Fair prediction and the advertisements in comic books, we are not living the future we were promised. By now, life was supposed to be a fully automated, atomic-powered, germ-free Utopia, a place where a grown man could wear a velvet spandex unitard and not be laughed at. Where are the ray guns, the flying cars, and the hoverboards that we expected? What happened to our moon colonies and servant robots?

In Where's My Jetpack? roboticist Daniel H. Wilson takes a hilarious look at the future we imagined for ourselves. You will learn which technologies are already available - and if the technology is not public, you will learn how to build, buy, or steal it. Where's My Jetpack? is an entertaining look at the world that we always wanted.

©2007 Daniel H. Wilson (P)2007 Blackstone Audio Inc.

Critic reviews

"Will produce sly chuckles....surprisingly informative." (The Oregonian)

Starting to Date Itself

I first heard about this book on Boing Boing and podcasts a couple years back. It sounded awesome to me. Dammit, where IS my jetpack? If you've been hiding for the last ten years perhaps there's a lot here still to find fresh. But much of these trails have been well mapped.

Worse, there's still futurism here disconnected from the cultural and social world that propels the subject. The zest for the Reasons Why at the beginning break down and pretty soon we're being regaled with stories of the absurd fantastic. So we're building houses on artificial islands in the Gulf? How's the market for that going? What's the environmental impact? Underwater hotels? The rooms exist but they're not doing brisk business.

In the meantime, James Cameron shoots to the bottom of the ocean in a torpedo sub.

Hopefully Wilson is working on a follow-up--rather than a new forward--that cuts a little deeper than this light compendium.

Delightful

The humor used in this look at our "somewhat disappointing future" really helps to put things into perspective. The outline is easily followed while listening and the reader has a wonderful low and lilting voice. "Fun Facts" are just that - fun. Anyone who has ever wondered about that stuff science fiction is made of should find comfort in this book.

Pulp science fiction as reviewed by your science teacher

This is an interesting book looking at the future as it was presented in the old pulp science fiction stories through the lens of what we know today. I was not quite sure what to expect here. What I found was like a paging through of a copy of Amazing Stories by your high school science teacher, all the while throwing in remarks on why none of this was going to happen. Along the way you get a smattering of dad joke level humor making light of all of it. The book itself was written in 2007, so a fair amount of the data presented is already out of date. Is it interesting? Yes. Is it informative? Not particularly if you pay any attention at all to science. Is it worth your time and money? Maybe... but I lean a bit towards "probably not". The author's heart was in the right place I think, but his delivery was a bit too condescending for me. If you are interested in the subject, but have not followed much science, I think you might like it better than I did.

slightly dated, but very funny

Book about future tech from 2007 so there's that... But was a great listen otherwise!

Serious Fun!

Listened while on a roadtrip from Wisconsin to Florida... This is big time fun, with info to boot! You will love it, I guarantee!

Just Lots of Fun

This book is not a deep contemplation of the way in which predictions of the future simultaneously over-estimate and under-estimate future capability. This tendency is because predictions of the future tend to overestimate progress in better understood dimensions, while egregiously underestimating progress along new dimensions. The jetpack is a great example of this tendency. It's an almost boringly simple technology compared to all the advances in computing that have happened, yet we don't have jetpacks for largely economic reasons. This phenomenon is an important topic for entrepreneurs and technology leaders and for some reason when I bought the book I was expecting an explanation of this issue.

Instead the book is a rather systematic exploration of the real science behind the top 40 childhood tech. fanatics of the baby boomers. It's meant to be a light fun read; a summer book for the balding or graying geek. It succeeds.

Informative and funny

If you ever wondered where the future went this book will tell you where and help you laugh it off.

I always wanted my own jetpack!

Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?

Yes, I would recommend it as an entertaining and enlightening read/listening experience. Some of my lifelong questions were answered. Now I known why we are not commuting by jetpack. (Sigh.) Other glowing promises that teased us over the years and never came to be were also explained and laid to rest.

Who was your favorite character and why?

Not a book about characters per se.

Which scene was your favorite?

Again, not arranged around scenes.

Was there a moment in the book that particularly moved you?

Not really. This isn't an emotion-based book. But it was far from dull or dry. I liked it a lot.

Any additional comments?

This is a book worth reading or listening to. As a baby boomer, I can remember many of these concepts and products being announced on the news decades ago. I enjoyed hearing what became of them. This was a great idea for a book.