Soonish

Ten Emerging Technologies That'll Improve and/or Ruin Everything

By: Kelly Weinersmith, Zach Weinersmith

Narrated by: Kelly Weinersmith, Zach Weinersmith

Length: 10 hrs and 10 mins

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.

Download the accompanying reference guide.

©2017 Zach Weinersmith and Kelly Weinersmith (P)2017 Audible, Inc.

A lot of potential derailed by bad jokes

The idea of this book is really cool and unique--looking at the costs and practical concerns that affect whether new technologies will be successful in everyday implementation and why. The authors have spent a lot of time researching emerging technologies and point out the cost and practical engineering problems that must be overcome. Neither are actively involved in research or development of the technologies, so all their information is second hand and probably not as complete as it could be, but it still could make for an interesting read.

If only they had stopped there. But no, the authors had to inject their poor sense of humor into the book. They are constantly injecting footnotes into book (when they really mean sidenotes), only half of which are relevant or interesting. They also try to make jokes that just aren't funny. And their delivery of the narration is very flat and expository which is a little boring to listen to. And I didn't appreciate the sexist language used throughout.

Overall, this book had a great idea and great potential, but the bad jokes, poor narration, and not understanding the difference between a sidenote and a footnote yet inserting one in every 10-20 seconds took away from what could potentially be an excellent book.

Funny nerd candy

The authors are really funny, and they talk about a bunch of wild ideas that people are working on, and they look at the pros and cons. Some of the ideas really expand your mind about what can be done. You can tell the amount of research and interviews that went into making this book was immense. The authors are pretty funny as well!

Entertaining and educational

Surprisingly fun and entertaining book about the technologies that are just behind the horizon. Must read while it’s still relevant since in some areas (reusable rockets) huge improvements were made since it was written. We’re still no closer to fusion though :P

Probably a great summer read as well. Highly recommended.

GREAT

loved this book. I learned a ton of interesting information about many emerging technologies and ideas. Made me look things up, thank you

Solid Overview of Potentially Upcoming Tech

Strikes a good balance between entertaining and informative. Some bits involving biological/medical innovations may be rough for squeamish listeners.

Sciency and Humorous

For all the closeted Science Geeks, this is a Must Listen!! And by listening, you'll catch all the Humor and Snark and Pop-Sci references...

Fun interesting read

I bought this on a whim and am very glad. this is a very well written look at future tech that's definitely got a sense of humor.

Good review of future tech in layman's terms.

Good review of future tech in layman's terms. The authors use humor and easy to understand examples. A good listen for someone who doesn't live in science, engineering, or technology but wants to know about cutting edge things people are working on and a decent, easy, and entertaining listen for those who are.

Entertaining if a bit speculative

The authors did the reading, and that usually results in a good performance. This was no exception. The topic of the book seemed interesting, but grew a little tiresome as the book went on.

Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Future

The Weinersmiths’ book is to popular science/futurology what John Oliver is to investigative journalism