BOOK REVIEW: Michio Kaku, The Physics of the Future.
Theoretical physicist and futurist Michio Kaku has given the general reading public a treat with his The Physics of the Future, a tour de force of current developments and enticing possibilities about what may be to come, based on projections of science in the near, middle, and more distant future (defined approximately and variously as within about 10 years, within about 20-30 years, and out 50-100 years or more).
The strengths of Kaku's work are immediately evident. It is a short course on emerging technologies ranging from robotics and the biology of pedagogy to propulsion to nanotechnology. Spanning the physical and life sciences, it represents amazing breadth. It is a vision of tomorrow anchored in science and reason. I found the book to be, in many ways, a literal education.
There are some limits to the book, however, beginning with the title. Though himself a physicist, the book Kaku has authored is really less about science than about its practical applications. It might have more accurately been titled, "The Engineering of the Future". (Realizing as I do that authors often have little control over the titles of their books, this is perhaps more a critique of the publisher than the writer.)
Other limitations include:
1. In spots, the imagination of the writer seems limited. The projections are basically straight-line based on current technical developments, and do not allow for the sudden transformations of paradigm or surges of knowledge which take place in the real world, as we have often seen in modern times but by no means only in recent history. Such sudden, transformational breakthroughs have included: the phonetic alphabet, the arch, printing, and of course the digital computer. Unexpected breakthroughs are of course not things which can be anticipated; however, Kaku's writing and viewpoint, at least in this work, appears to leave little room for them.
2. All religion is seen as superstition. (Though he does occasionally quote from texts viewed as holy by various traditions.)
3. Possibly in part as a consequence of #2, there is a breathtaking moral naivete in the book. The author's position seems to be that if we could just put the smartest, most rational and scientifically-grounded people in charge, then all would be well. Not only does this not take into consideration the difference between various kinds of knowledge and wisdom, but it flies in the face of recent history in terms of the brutality of regimes marked by godless or totalitarian ideologies.
Kaku frequently refers to science conferring "godlike" power and making human beings as gods. This is chilling, not only as an echo of Genesis 3 ("you shall be like gods"), but in implicitly raising the question (as Kaku never does) of what our present society would actually do with "godlike" power.
4. There are a few "dreams" or "visions" of the future which strike this reader as being more in the nature of nightmares. For example: the possibility of robotic replacements for human bodies, offering a kind of faux, cybernetic immortality. On the other hand, when Kaku states that there is nothing inherent in human life that preprograms it for mortality (for instance, the DNA molecule itself transmits immortally from generation to generation), he comes closer than he realizes to affirming principles of Christian theological anthropology.
Very informative and frequently entertaining, Kaku's book is great for what it does. As with many authors, however, when he strays over into areas where he presumes understanding that he does not really possess, he reveals the limitations of his futurology, and provides an unconscious warning about possible things to come.
Kaku, Michio. The Physics of the Future: How Science Will Shape Human Destiny and Our Daily Lives by the Year 2100. Anchor, 2012. 480 pp. in paperback ed. (I listened to the CD edition.)
Prince Frederick, Maryland (Providence)
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