Soonish

Ten Emerging Technologies That Will Improve and/or Ruin Everything

By: Dr. Kelly Weinersmith, Zach Weinersmith

Narrated by: Dr. Kelly Weinersmith, Joseph May

Penguin presents the audiobook edition of Soonish by Kelly and Zach Weinersmith, read by Kelly Weinersmith and Joseph May.

What will the world of tomorrow be like? How does progress happen? And why don't we have a lunar colony already? In this witty and entertaining book, Kelly and Zach Weinersmith give us a snapshot of the transformative technologies that are coming next - from robot swarms to nuclear fusion powered-toasters - and explain how they will change our world in astonishing ways. By weaving together their own research, interviews with pioneering scientists and Zach's trademark comics, the Weinersmiths investigate why these innovations are needed, how they would work, and what is standing in their way.

Critic reviews

An unabashed nerd-out of a book, zinging from outer space to DNA, hardly pausing for breath ... The gleeful geeking out makes for a great read - I couldn't help chuckling or outright cracking up a number of times - while surreptitiously teaching some really important science. It's a winning combination. The sheer breadth of topics covered is also amazing: Probably no other book in history has seriously described the science behind both tentacle construction robots and the human nasal cycle (Science)

Space elevators, gold asteroids, and fusion-powered toasters - who knew science could be so much fun? And who knew fun could be so scientific? Soonish is hilarious, provocative, and shamelessly informative (Tim Harford, author of 'Messy' and 'The Undercover Economist')

Playful, yet deep (Dr. George Church, Harvard University)

I love this book so much I 3D printed myself a second heart so I could love it more (Dr. Phil Plait, astronomer, author, writer of the Bad Astronomy Blog)

Kelly and Zach promised me a crystal ball, but what I got is both more insightful and far more entertaining than staring into a dumb glass orb. Soonish will make you laugh and - without you even realizing it - give you insight into the most ambitious technological feats of our time. You should read this book, sooner than soonish (Alexis Ohanian, Cofounder of Reddit)

Basically, I think this book is a masterpiece, and something I wish I'd written myself (Scott Aaronson, David J. Bruton Centennial Professor of Computer Science at the University of Texas at Austin and author of 'Quantum Computing Since Democritus')

Compelling, accessible, and wryly funny ... Popular-science writing has rarely been so whip-smart, captivating, or hilarious (albeit occasionally terrifying) (Sarah Hunter)

A fascinating look at the most provocative and promising research going on today and how it could alter the way we work and live

Highly recommended!

This book is for anyone (mostly nerds) who really want to interrogate what the future will look like. I was very inspired by the research and gave away three hard copies as presents, so yeah, I am fan.

Soooooo... it's not 5-10 years away.

Good book. I listened to the audio version and think Eric Idle should have narrated it. This version was good, but a Python would have made it great!