Author: Michio Kaku
Michio Kaku uses his physicist background to explore how the brain works. He starts out by describing the recent advances in mapping the inner workings of the human brain. While this is fascinating stuff, Michio uses it as a launch pad to get to his favorite pastime which is speculating on the future. Reading between the lines, I figured that Kaku has been paying close attention to all the gadgets and gizmos in Sci-Fi movies and a good portion of the book is dedicated to explaining how these might actually be realized with some advances in science and technology. Call me a glutton for punishment, but I continued on this rather strange trip only to find that the next stop was a treatise on the likelihood of finding life on other planets in the Universe. Kaku tackles interesting questions like whether there is an intelligent life form in outer space and if so, is it a good idea for us to contact them? Given the large number of planets that have similar conditions as Earth, the odds are heavily in favor of life evolving on some of them. This then begs the question of whether aliens will look like the life-forms that we are used to on earth or be wildly different?
While some of these questions are good ones, the book leaves a lot to be desired in terms of readability. Unless you are a big fan of Sci-Fi movies and want to understand how some of their cool gadgets might work, I would take a pass on this one.
Michio Kaku uses his physicist background to explore how the brain works. He starts out by describing the recent advances in mapping the inner workings of the human brain. While this is fascinating stuff, Michio uses it as a launch pad to get to his favorite pastime which is speculating on the future. Reading between the lines, I figured that Kaku has been paying close attention to all the gadgets and gizmos in Sci-Fi movies and a good portion of the book is dedicated to explaining how these might actually be realized with some advances in science and technology. Call me a glutton for punishment, but I continued on this rather strange trip only to find that the next stop was a treatise on the likelihood of finding life on other planets in the Universe. Kaku tackles interesting questions like whether there is an intelligent life form in outer space and if so, is it a good idea for us to contact them? Given the large number of planets that have similar conditions as Earth, the odds are heavily in favor of life evolving on some of them. This then begs the question of whether aliens will look like the life-forms that we are used to on earth or be wildly different?
While some of these questions are good ones, the book leaves a lot to be desired in terms of readability. Unless you are a big fan of Sci-Fi movies and want to understand how some of their cool gadgets might work, I would take a pass on this one.
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