Good views from a variety of thinkers. There is a reference to a website www.edge.org that has more of a collection of questions that are answered by lots of smart people and other books like this one.

the juan enrique and max tegmark ones spoke to me the most.

I'm still somewhere in the first quarter and I'm not going to return to this book.Each time, I picked it up I read an essay or two, but somehow, I can't make myself read more of them. When buying, I've expected something more coherent, not a collection of short essays. But they're probably not even essays. Each "chapter" is only a few pages long, so they are very shallow and usually there's nothing to think about, no interesting arguments to support it, many of them does not try to view the prob...

I bought this book thinking it would be a series of ten to twenty essays, each focusing on one particular product or concept and how its contribution to society will be magnified by future technological advancements. I was right about most of that guess - I was wrong about the number of authors. Not ten or twenty, but one hundred and twenty five scholars lend their voice to this compilation, each expounding on one or many changes they believe will happen in the coming decades that will, as the t...

This is a book that I would recommend without hesitation. Imagine the opportunity in 1641 to ask Galileo--what in your opinion would change everything. Or in 1687 to ask Newton what will change everything? This book poses the question to a range of recognized contemporary individuals--what in your mind will change everything. The book is quite accessible because the posts contained here are submitted with a mind to brevity. And while the editing seems to sequence articles to their subject matter...

An orange, puffed cheese flavored product.“Nobody ever voted for printing. Nobody ever voted for electricity. Nobody ever voted for radio, the telephone, the automobile, the airplane, television. Nobody ever voted for penicillin, antibiotics, the Pill. Nobody ever voted for space travel, massively parallel computing, nuclear power, the personal computer, the Internet, email, cell phones, the Web, Google, cloning, sequencing the entire human genome.” That from the preface; would that the volu

I stopped reading after page 41. I don't know why the book is formatted the way it is. I expected more from it, like delving into ideas and research that supports the 'ideas' that will supposedly shape the future. It felt like just 1/2 to 4 page editorials.

I'm am 'ideas' person, so I loved that this book rallied together so many different thinkers to offer perspectives on life changing phenomena in their fields. It was a very fun and stimulating (albeit sometimes questionable) read.

A cheap idea but lots of prestigious contributors. Worth reviewing now 2020 to embarrass the original authors.

ENGLISHWhat a great concept for a non-fiction book, to let luminaries answer questions briefly and succinctly. As a literary agent with a focus on scientific literature, Brockman understands to foster interest in research in an accessible and understandable way through a new book concept.Based on the brilliant and straightforward position of a question to scientists, but also artists and other prominent personalities, a collection of different views of the world and personal theories open up. In...

This is a book containing essays discussing scientific, sociological and technological predictions for the future but it was written in 2009 and I am reading it 12 years later - which is weird but not really a problem since, predictably, none of the predictions have yet come true. The thing is, creating the future takes time. It's not really a book you read cover to cover unless you are weirdly anal about reading like me, but there are lots of really intriguing ideas and tidbits scattered throug...

An interesting book - but also too long. I left wiser than I arrive.

I read this for our staff book club and it is a fine book but just not for me. It is a series of short essays written by 100 of the world’s most influential minds in response to the question “What game-changing scientific ideas and developments do you expect to live to see?” Most of these are very deep dives into everything from A.I., life on other planets, renewable energy, living longer, human genomes and nuclear war. But there were just so many...and some duplicating ideas....

A very good introduction to revolutionary scientific ideas in the 21st century.

I would not recommend reading this book in a week. The numerous brief essays are much more suited for a "one-per-day" approach, giving the reader (at least this one) time to appreciate the material presented.I enjoyed many of the essays and the broad range of topics covered. Overall, I came away with a feeling that they were too frequent and too brief. However, I will be digging deeper into the works of several authors.In the end, I would recommend this collection and have specific plans to so.

So... I checked this out of the library and only had time to get through a few of the essays. What seemed to be said in more than one (and an idea I've been coming across in different places) is that we as humans are going to have to change our way of thinking about humanity. Given that cloning, gene manipulation, and part-human/part-animal and part-human/part-machine combos are happening now, we should probably start loosening up on our definition of humanity and expand our ethics to include an...

This particular book contains a bunch of artists and scientists doing a lot of lofty predicting. Not that I'm against high altitude thinking I guess I more concerned with the practical things. When will dinner be ready is what I'm hearing most not when will AI make it possible to solve the world's problems. Some things can be done but I wonder if some things should be done. Who exactly is going to carry out the practical aspects of advanced technology? Who are the boots on the ground?

(Accidentally left on an airplane, had to buy a new copy, took a bit longer to finish...)Good stuff. Whereas Brockman's "Science At The Edge" had maybe a dozen or two longer, more in-depth essays, this work was a tapas menu of 1-5 page essays, all bite-sized, on what various Edge members thought would change everything. It was certainly slanted to what scientific/technological breakthrough would do that, but some writers found some more esoteric/creative ideas to introduce. There were several us...

Similar sentiments to those I expressed years ago in a (much more thorough) review of This Explains Everything (though I'd have done so less snarkily in my older age ;-) : the ideas in these essays are amazing, though sometimes obscure, and the authorship is overwhelmingly male, overwhelmingly white, but engaging, creative, and brilliant. Each essay is a short jaunt through some scientific concept, often hypothetical, and so is best left some space to ruminate by consuming sparingly. But I do en...

Enjoyable "convenient" read. It's set up in a series of some short, some a little longer essay-type readings; making it easy for busy people like myself who may only have 5-10 minutes to sit down and read something thoughtful, but quick. Some essays are worth reading, discussing, and thinking about; others, although well-written, seem like the ideas were simply thrown together, making your mind leap to some pretty out-there ideas. I recommend it for busy people who still want to indulge in a lit...