AN Optimist's Tour of the Future : One Curious Man Sets Out to Answer 'What's Next?'

In the tradition of Bill Bryson's A Short History of Nearly Everything , a smart and entertaining guide to the future of civilization When unexpectedly confronted with his own mortality, Mark Stevenson- a writer, deep-thinker, and stand-up comedian-began to ponder what the future holds for our species. "The past is a foreign country," writes Stevenson. "By my analysis it's a bit like France-in that I've been to parts of it and eaten some nice food there. But the future? The future is an unknown territory-and there isn't a guidebook." Thus, his ambition was born. Stevenson set out simply, asking, "What's next?" and then traveled the globe in pursuit of the answers. Along the way, he visited the Australian outback to visit the farmers who can save us from climate change, met a robot with mood swings, and talked to the Spaniard who's putting a hotel in space. While some might be overwhelmed, or even dismayed by the looming realities of genome sequencing, synthetic biology, a nuclear renaissance, and carbon scrubbing, Stevenson remains, well, optimistic. Drawing on his singular humor and storytelling to break down these sometimes complicated discoveries, An Optimist's Tour of the Future paints a wonderfully readable, and completely enthralling portrait of where we'll be when we grow up- and why it's not so scary. Watch a Video **In the tradition of Bill Bryson's __A Short History of Nearly Everything__, a smart and entertaining guide to the future of civilization** \ \ When unexpectedly confronted with his own mortality, Mark Stevenson- a writer, deep-thinker, and stand-up comedian-began to ponder what the future holds for our species. "The past is a foreign country," writes Stevenson. "By my analysis it's a bit like France-in that I've been to parts of it and eaten some nice food there. But the future? The future is an unknown territory-and there isn't a guidebook." Thus, his ambition was born.\ \ Stevenson set out simply, asking, "What's next?" and then traveled the globe in pursuit of the answers. Along the way, he visited the Australian outback to visit the farmers who can save us from climate change, met a robot with mood swings, and talked to the Spaniard who's putting a hotel in space. While some might be overwhelmed, or even dismayed by the looming realities of genome sequencing, synthetic biology, a nuclear renaissance, and carbon scrubbing, Stevenson remains, well, optimistic. Drawing on his singular humor and storytelling to break down these sometimes complicated discoveries, __An Optimist's Tour of the Future__ paints a wonderfully readable, and completely enthralling portrait of where we'll be when we grow up- and why it's not so scary.\ \ Watch a Video Mark Stevenson has been to the future a few years ahead of the rest of us - and reckons it has a lot going for it. His voyage of discovery takes him to Oxford to meet Transhumanists (they intend to live forever), to Boston where he confronts a robot with mood swings, to an underwater cabinet meeting in the Indian Ocean, and Australia to question the Outback's smartest farmer. He clambers around space planes in the Mojave desert, gets to grips with the potential of nanotechnology, delves deep into the possibilities of biotech, sees an energy renaissance on a printer, a revolution in communications, has his genome profiled, and glimpses the next stage of human evolution ... and tries to make sense of what's in store. Insightful and often very funny, "An Optimist's Tour of the Future" is a book that tracks one curious man's journey to find out 'what's next?' Man. "The world's most dangerous idea" ; "The most wondrous map" ; "My lab should not be trusted" Machine. Can you turn all the buttons on? ; "Like explaining Shakespeare to a dog" ; "Invisibly small and and magical" ; "The biggest, baddest kid on the block" ; "A constant and complete intercourse" Mother Earth. "World leaders still don't really get it" ; "I'm a disruptive guy. I like disruption" ; "The black phantom" ; "A little bit of a big amount" ; "The best job in the world" Me. "Making a road where there isn't one" ; "Future shock" ; Hello, and thanks for all the fish. A guide to the future of civilization describes the author's travels in various world regions where he learned about climate-proof farming practices and breakthrough technologies with a potential for helping the world.