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The Next Fifty Years
- Science in the First Half of the Twenty-First Century
- Narrated by: Henry Leyva, Jennifer Wiltsie
- Length: 7 hrs and 53 mins
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Publisher's Summary
This fascinating and unprecedented book explores not only the practical possibilities of the near future, but also the social and political ramifications of the developments of the strange new world to come.
Includes original essays by: Lee Smolin, Martin Rees, Ian Stewart, Brian Goodwin, Marc D. Hauser, Alison Gopnik, Paul Bloom, Geoffrey Miller, Robert M. Sapolsky, Steven Strogatz, Stuart Kauffman, John H. Holland, Rodney Brooks, Peter Atkins, Roger C. Schank, Jaron Lanier, David Gelernter, Joseph LeDoux, Judith Rich Harris, Samuel Barondes, and Paul W. Ewald.
The Next Fifty Years is also available in print from Vintage.
(P)2002 Random House, Inc.
Critic Reviews
"The intellectual adventures collected here point to a future that is dazzlingly bright." (Publishers Weekly)
"These science-authors, many premiere in their field, are clear, provocative, and sure to interest science readers." (Booklist)
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What listeners say about The Next Fifty Years
Average Customer RatingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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Overall
- doublebullout
- 01-21-03
Not for the casual science fan
Interesting set of essays, but beware if you aren't already familiar with the basic theories and terms in each field. This is more a recitation of the thorny theoretical problems of today than a set of predictions for how scientific discovery will shape our immediate future. Frankly, a few of the contributing scientists seem to be too insufferably pleased with their own cleverness.
20 people found this helpful
-
Overall
- G Tucker
- 04-05-03
Fascinating
The Next Fifty Years provides a fascinating insight into the future of science from the eyes of the leading scientists. For example, Richard Dawkins provides us with "Son of Moore's Law", based on the historical drop in the cost of DNA sequencing. If it continues to hold true, then by 2050 we can expect to sequence a human's 3 billion DNA pairs for about $50, cheap enough for individuals to afford their own. Dawkins then discusses the ramfications of this.
The final piece give another fascinating prediction, that most of the world's major diseases, including breast cancer, alzheimer's disease, heart disease, and others will be demonstrated by 2050 to have infectious, microbial origins. Already this is demonstrated for several forms of cancer, and only 10% of cancer forms can currenly rule out infectious origins.
Generally the book translates well to the audio format. If I have any complaint with the book, it is that there is tremendous emphasis on genetics and human pathology, especially in the latter half. The listener could be forgiven for concluding that most advances in science will occur within this field; however I do not believe that to be the case. Though somewhat brainy at times, reasonably intelligent listeners should have no trouble getting something out of all the essays.
17 people found this helpful
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Overall
- Alex
- 04-01-03
I'm very glad I got this
These essays are full of predictions, and as a bonus serve as a survey course on the state of the art as well as history of several scietific disciplines. The predictions range from the predictable (computer memory will become cheap and ubiquitous) to the radical (schools and universities will become obsolete). The topics include psychology, computer science, astronomy, physics, biology, chemistry, and genetics as well as mixtures of these more pure disciplines, such as cognitive science. The sociological implications of expected advances in these fields are discussed. There are also some great one-liners, such as "A virtue at its extreme becomes a vice."
I would recommend some familiarity with whichever topic you are interested in, but I'm sure you could learn a great deal without prior study. If you enjoy Scientific American, or even Popular Science, you should enjoy this.
This set of essays would be useful to investors, scientists and engineers looking to broaden their view of what's going on in other disciplines, or someone with a casual interest in science looking for recommendations for further reading.
For my own part, I thought most of the predictions were optimistic and based on the more stable pre-2000 geopolitical situation. If I could pick a theme from the essays, it would be that a greater understanding and exploitation of distributed systems will lead to the next round of scientific and technological advances.
16 people found this helpful
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Overall
- Matt
- 10-17-03
Hard Listen
This was very difficult to listen to has a novice of science. Need to have a sold science background to understand everything that was said in it. Still glad I struggled thru it though.
3 people found this helpful
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Story
According to the prevailing scientific paradigm, the universe tends toward randomness; it functions according to laws without purpose, and life is an accident devoid of meaning. Thanks to a new understanding of evolution, as well as recent advances in our understanding of the phenomenon known as emergence, a new cosmic narrative is taking shape: Nature’s simplest “parts” come together to form ever-greater “wholes” in a process that has no end in sight. Bobby Azarian explains the science behind this new view of reality and explores what it means for all of us.
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Brilliant book, except for the author’s examination of free will.
- By Trevor W. Lines on 01-04-23
By: Bobby Azarian
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The Consciousness Instinct
- Unraveling the Mystery of How the Brain Makes the Mind
- By: Michael S. Gazzaniga
- Narrated by: David Colacci
- Length: 9 hrs and 34 mins
- Unabridged
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How do neurons turn into minds? The problem of consciousness has gnawed at us for millennia. In the last century there have been massive breakthroughs that have rewritten the science of the brain, and yet the puzzles faced by the ancient Greeks are still present. In The Consciousness Instinct, the neuroscience pioneer Michael S. Gazzaniga puts the latest research in conversation with the history of human thinking about the mind, giving a big-picture view of what science has revealed about consciousness.
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Not recommended
- By PMonaco on 01-19-19
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The Singularity Is Near
- When Humans Transcend Biology
- By: Ray Kurzweil
- Narrated by: George Wilson
- Length: 24 hrs and 38 mins
- Unabridged
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For over three decades, Ray Kurzweil has been one of the most respected and provocative advocates of the role of technology in our future. In his classic The Age of Spiritual Machines, he argued that computers would soon rival the full range of human intelligence at its best. Now he examines the next step in this inexorable evolutionary process: The union of human and machine, in which the knowledge and skills embedded in our brains will be combined with the vastly greater capacity, speed, and knowledge-sharing ability of our creations.
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RUINED audio.
- By Fred on 06-25-21
By: Ray Kurzweil
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Consilience
- The Unity of Knowledge
- By: Edward O. Wilson
- Narrated by: Jonathan Hogan
- Length: 17 hrs and 35 mins
- Unabridged
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In Consilience (a word that originally meant "jumping together"), Edward O. Wilson renews the Enlightenment's search for a unified theory of knowledge in disciplines that range from physics to biology, the social sciences and the humanities. Using the natural sciences as his model, Wilson forges dramatic links between fields. Presenting the latest findings in prose of wonderful clarity and oratorical eloquence, and synthesizing it into a dazzling whole, Consilience is science in the path-clearing traditions of Newton, Einstein, and Richard Feynman.
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Very Informative!
- By Purchaser on 11-11-18
By: Edward O. Wilson
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Beyond Zero and One
- Machines, Psychedelics, and Consciousness
- By: Andrew Smart
- Narrated by: Victor Bevine
- Length: 6 hrs and 19 mins
- Unabridged
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In an exposition reminiscent of crossover works such as Gödel, Escher, Bach and Fermat's Last Theorem, Andrew Smart weaves together Mangarevan binary numbers, the discovery of LSD, Leibniz, computer programming, and much more to connect the vast but largely forgotten world of psychedelic research with the resurgent field of AI and the attempt to build conscious robots.
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loved it
- By Alan Mccormick on 03-12-16
By: Andrew Smart
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Possible Minds
- Twenty-Five Ways of Looking at AI
- By: John Brockman - editor
- Narrated by: Kathleen McInerney, Will Damron, Jason Culp, and others
- Length: 10 hrs and 39 mins
- Unabridged
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The fruit of the long history of John Brockman's profound engagement with the most important scientific minds who have been thinking about AI - from Alison Gopnik and David Deutsch to Frank Wilczek and Stephen Wolfram - Possible Minds is an ideal introduction to the landscape of crucial issues AI presents. The collision between opposing perspectives is salutary and exhilarating; some of these figures are deeply concerned with the threat of AI, including the existential one, while others have a very different view.
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The worst book purchase I’ve made in a long while
- By Y. Zhao on 06-07-19
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In Our Own Image
- Savior or Destroyer? The History and Future of Artificial Intelligence
- By: George Zarkadakis
- Narrated by: Gildart Jackson
- Length: 13 hrs and 49 mins
- Unabridged
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A timely and important book that explores the societal and ethical implications of artificial intelligence as we approach the cusp of a fourth industrial revolution. George Zarkadakis explores one of humankind's oldest love-hate relationships: our ties with artificial intelligence, or AI. He traces AI's origins in ancient myth, through literary classics like Frankenstein to today's science fiction blockbusters, arguing that a fascination with AI is hardwired into the human psyche.
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Strange and unsupported assertions
- By R. Bee on 09-18-20
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The Age of Spiritual Machines
- When Computers Exceed Human Intelligence
- By: Ray Kurzweil
- Narrated by: Alan Sklar
- Length: 3 hrs and 34 mins
- Abridged
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Ray Kurzweil is the inventor of the most innovative and compelling technology of our era, an international authority on artificial intelligence, and one of our greatest living visionaries. Now he offers a framework for envisioning the 21st century - an age in which the marriage of human sensitivity and artificial intelligence fundamentally alters and improves the way we live.
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An optimistic map to technological transcendence
- By Ryan on 03-07-12
By: Ray Kurzweil
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The Human Instinct
- By: Kenneth R. Miller
- Narrated by: Fred Sanders
- Length: 10 hrs and 6 mins
- Unabridged
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Lately, the most passionate advocates of the theory of evolution seem to present it as bad news. Scientists such as Richard Dawkins, Lawrence Krauss, and Sam Harris tell us that our most intimate actions, thoughts, and values are mere byproducts of thousands of generations of mindless adaptation. We are just one species among multitudes and therefore no more significant than any other living creature. Now comes Brown University biologist Kenneth R. Miller to make the case that this view betrays a gross misunderstanding of evolution.
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Special pleading does not make you special
- By Gary on 07-01-18
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Alice and Bob Meet the Wall of Fire
- The Biggest Ideas in Science from Quanta
- By: Thomas Lin - editor, Sean Carroll - foreword
- Narrated by: Bob Souer
- Length: 10 hrs and 31 mins
- Unabridged
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Bringing together the best and most interesting science stories appearing in Quanta Magazine over the past five years, Alice and Bob Meet the Wall of Fire reports on some of the greatest scientific minds as they test the limits of human knowledge. It communicates science by taking it seriously, wrestling with difficult concepts, and clearly explaining them in a way that speaks to our innate curiosity about our world and ourselves.
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Broad collection of specific physics applications
- By James S. on 06-26-19
By: Thomas Lin - editor, and others
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The Half-life of Facts
- Why Everything We Know Has an Expiration Date
- By: Samuel Arbesman
- Narrated by: Sean Pratt
- Length: 7 hrs and 54 mins
- Unabridged
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New insights from the science of science Facts change all the time. Smoking has gone from doctor recommended to deadly. We used to think the Earth was the center of the universe and that Pluto was a planet. For decades, we were convinced that the brontosaurus was a real dinosaur. In short, what we know about the world is constantly changing. But it turns out there’s an order to the state of knowledge, an explanation for how we know what we know.
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Author misrepresents what an actual 'fact' is.
- By Davin V. Jones on 12-03-12
By: Samuel Arbesman
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Ignorance
- How It Drives Science
- By: Stuart Firestein
- Narrated by: David Copelin
- Length: 4 hrs and 54 mins
- Unabridged
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Knowledge is a big subject, says Stuart Firestein, but ignorance is a bigger one. And it is ignorance - not knowledge - that is the true engine of science. Most of us have a false impression of science as a surefire, deliberate, step-by-step method for finding things out and getting things done. In fact, says Firestein, more often than not, science is like looking for a black cat in a dark room, and there may not be a cat in the room.
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It turns out, I’m not dumb at all
- By corridor5 on 03-28-18
By: Stuart Firestein
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Darwin Devolves
- The New Science About DNA That Challenges Evolution
- By: Michael J. Behe
- Narrated by: Timothy Andrés Pabon
- Length: 10 hrs and 33 mins
- Unabridged
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The scientist who has been dubbed the “Father of Intelligent Design” and author of the groundbreaking book Darwin’s Black Box contends that recent scientific discoveries further disprove Darwinism and strengthen the case for an intelligent creator.
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Well reasoned and persuasive
- By CKDexter on 03-03-19
By: Michael J. Behe
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At the Edge of Uncertainty
- 11 Discoveries Taking Science by Surprise
- By: Michael Brooks
- Narrated by: Sean Runnette
- Length: 9 hrs and 12 mins
- Unabridged
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The atom, the big bang, DNA, natural selection - all are ideas that have revolutionized science; and all were dismissed out of hand when they first appeared. The surprises haven't stopped in recent years, and in At the Edge of Uncertainty, best-selling author Michael Brooks investigates the new wave of radical insights that are shaping the future of scientific discovery.
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All smoke, no fire
- By Kenton on 07-25-15
By: Michael Brooks
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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.