What Happens Next? Conversations from MARS

By: Adam Savage

Narrated by: Adam Savage

Length: 2 hrs and 50 mins

Publisher's Summary

The most innovative minds in science and technology reveal a vision for the future of life on Earth - and beyond.

Every year, 200 experts across machine learning, automation, robotics, and space arrive in Palm Springs for MARS - the yearly, invitation-only event hosted by Amazon founder and CEO Jeff Bezos - to share new ideas about how these four fields will shape our future.

In What Happens Next: Conversations from MARS, TV host and maker of things Adam Savage (MythBusters) takes listeners deep inside the MARS conference. In interviews with more than a dozen leading scientists and thinkers - including former astronaut Mike Massimino, iRobot co-founder Rodney Brooks, Dava Newman (former deputy administrator of NASA), Oren Etzioni (CEO, Allen Institute for Artificial Intelligence), futurist Kate Compton, and Caleb Harper (director of the Open Agriculture initiative at MIT) - Savage explores the mind-blowing and often misunderstood ways in which science and innovation are transforming the way we live, work, and play.

Full of wonder, optimism, and plain old awesomeness, What Happens Next will be a revelation for anyone who’s ever wondered about what our future will look like and how we’ll get there.    

©2018 Audible Originals LLC (P)2018 Audible, Inc.

So much fun in a very geeky kinda way!

This is actually a really fun book, in a very geeky kinda way... and Wow, it's done by Adam Savage the co-host of MythBusters! The show that ran for years on Discovery channel, and I never missed an episode! I've been keeping tabs on Adam... his love for making things, his YouTube videos where he might interview an author, such as Andy Weir, or do a terribly geeky build, or having fun at a SciFi convention...
This book just highlighted Adam Savage's excitement for all things cutting-edge science, from advanced A.I. and robotics to the health sciences, thinking outside the box, Maker Spaces, and the book ends by talking about space and space travel.
This book is very listener friendly. It's set up more like a podcast or Ted Talks, so I (a non-scientific type) could understand and enjoy this book

Machine learning, Automation, Robotics, and Space

M.A.R.S. is an annual closed door conference looking at technologies such as robotics, artificial intelligence, and space travel. Run by Amazon's Jeff Bezos it is a collection of futurists looking at what technology my bring. Despite what the name suggests, it is not wholly (or even primarily) focused on space and getting to, and living on, the planet Mars

Adam Savage, of Mythbusters, takes us behind those closed doors, giving an insight into the 2018 conference. This is a NPR type presentation, or a long podcast.

Savage was invited along to present and discuss armor and suits, including his large collection of replica medieval armor and space suits. He then interviews a variety of the other people at the conference, looking at subjects including:

- artificial intelligence (is the Skynet situation likely to happen?)
- the future of space suits (and exosuits that could augment our abilites)
- remote medical robots (allowing surgery to be done from behind a keyboard halfway across the world)
- helper robots (from roombas to Jetson's Rosie)
- devices to help disabled people (robotic limbs, deep brain stimulation, advanced hearing aids)
- environmental control (biodomes... for living on other planets?)
- space exploration (talking to astronauts and the guys who confirmed gravitational waves)
- and more....

Strangely the conference also includes physical and practical things - like swimming lessons for those that want them. They will exercise your body while you are there, not just your mind.

As with many discussions of future technology this release could look very laughable and quaint in five or ten years. Or it could look prescient. I'm guessing it is probably a mix of both. Some we will be realised, some will be close, some will be seen to be silly, surpassed ideas. But it is a great snapshot of how the future is seen from 2018.

The format is a series of interviews and discussions led by Savage. He is the main narrator, providing the background and the context for the discussion and convention, while various experts (all convention attendees) fill in the technical details of their work.

The audio is well produced. The sound quality of the interviews etc is all clear. Savage is a good lead for this, walking people through the discussion and explaining it is a way that is not talking down, but also not excluding people who are not techno-savvy.

There is some music, used to highlight moments of the audio, but it is not overwhelming, overused or misplaced.

If you like NPR, Freakonomics or similar things, you will probably like this.

Podcast/TED style infotainment

This was a fun surface level look at a conference of futurists lead by Jeff Bezos about the tech which will take us beyond the greatest reaches of human understanding. Then when that doesn't sound practical they tell us how it will improve in-home healthcare and factory automation. Cynicism aside, to me these fall-back positions serve to greatly underscore that predicting the future is a fool's errand -- but wherever we're going, we won't get there without dreamers and tinkering scientists.

This was a fun quick listen and if you can get it for free: do so. Don't pay money or credits though. It's the same quality as any of a number of really good podcasts.

Brightens our view of humanity

It doesn't just give a glance into the inspiring future we're heading towards. But also shows us a deeper reflection upon the value of what we have today and the road we left behind, which has guided us to new horizons beyond our imagination.
This is creativity and genius to it's highest extent, but manifested in humble, beautiful way.

We DO live in a world full of problems, but we as species, can do wonderful things. No problem can outfight us when our brightest minds, our warmest hearts and our bravest spirits unite and work together for the greater good.

Nice book

this book is very nice.this is the interesting story..this book is fantastic story.i love this book.

Great book

This is a really good book. Book about our near future, which already is here.

not what I expected. it was better.

Adam was not reading a book. it's a interview and radio show. it's a great set of stories and interviews.

Interesting

Positive take on the potential future of technology. Adam does a good job of keeping it interesting.

kiddos

want More on what is possible and good in this world and beyond exspecialy during these trying times.. well done

Very interesting

Definitely hooked from the beginning. Loved listening to this and learning about AI. Good read.