This book has a misleading title, which may or may not be the author’s fault, but it is a valuable resource for considering the possible technological developments of the next several decades. Dr. Michio Kaku focuses a lot more on biology than physics, which is the one thing I found disappointing about the book. However, his coverage of nanotechnology makes a nice recovery.
Dr. Kaku’s realistic discussion of artificial intelligence presents the most important conclusion of his research in future technologies: we cannot recreate the human mind. He writes,
Since we are drowning in an ocean of information, the most precious commodity in modern society is wisdom. Without wisdom and insight, we are left to drift aimlessly and without purpose, with an empty, hollow feeling after the novelty of unlimited information wears off.
Much like Thomas L. Friedman in The World Is Flat, Dr. Kaku shows how the economy progresses from commodity capitalism to intellectual capitalism through processes like the Four Stages of Technology and Moore’s Law. Your mind is the one thing that disruptive innovation can never replace. So invest in yourself and train your brain by reading books. Physics of the Future is a good place to start!
While it seems a little early to write a “history of the 21st century,” The World Is Flat is full of amazing insights that reshape the way we look at our world. What do the fall of the Berlin Wall, the Netscape IPO, and 9/11 all have in common? Thomas L. Friedman shows how these and other events are both causes and effects of the flattening of the world that has been on a fast track from 1989 to today.
