Techtv's Catalog of Tomorrow

by Que Corporation

Book Overview

Change is everywhere around us, transforming the way we will live, work, play, and learn. By using technology as a backdrop to entertain, amaze, and engage viewers, TechTV is the lifestyle network... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0789728109
• ISBN13: 9780789728104
• Release Date: January 2002
• Publisher: Techtv
• Length: 288 Pages
• Weight: 1.85 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 8.0" x 10.0"

Customer Reviews

Quite a wonderful cursory overview...

Granted, the articles do not go into belaboring details about each and every possible future development. But that is perfectly acceptable, as this is not designed to be a technical manual. In fact is's simply a speculative set of ideas of what might be coming based upon current trends. Granted it's generalist, and there is perhaps a bit of fluff. But to go into any significant detail would have required significantly more effort/research, would have made the book about 5x as thick and jacked up the price majorly. As it is, it's inexpensive and a wonderful read. The articles are short enough to keep your attention, with enough details and related links/articles to give you more areas/ways to research if you're not satisfied by a particular insight or article. Being a cyberpunk genre fan, and having wanted an in to the genre when I thought of writing, I actually bought this as something of a future tech reference book. Anyone who wanted inspiratino to write further speculative fiction could all but flip to a page and use one of the articles to base 2-3 stories off of. Truly a remarkable book for what it is. I highly reccommend it. So long as you don't expect it to give you "step-by-step instructions on how to build a pocket-sized thermonuclear device" type material and detail, you probab;y won't be disappointed it's essentially a glossed over/abstracted down set of articles which are interesting and moderately informative. Happy purchasing!

Looking ahead to a different and better future

While the advancement of computing technology gets most of the major headlines, there are an enormous number of other technical advances that will dramatically change our lives in the next decade. Some, like the development of extremely small machines, are major differences in kind from what we now have. However, many are simply the results of continued advances that have been proceeding at various speeds for decades. One example of this is the generation of electric power from wind. It was given a temporary boost in the late 70's as a consequence of what was then called the "energy crunch", but shortly after, fell out of favor. After two decades of low-velocity progress and rising utility rates, windmills are now economically viable alternatives to other types of power plants. Both revolutionary and evolutionary advancements are covered in this book. I found some of the descriptions to be rather routine, but others were extremely interesting, really piquing my interests. A series of pointers to relevant web sites is included at the end of each section and I took advantage of many of them. The most fascinating of all the topics in the book is that of nanomachines, extremely small machines that can be programmed to repair or destroy things. While such machines could be a force for great achievement, they also pose a great danger and in fact may be the ultimate weapon of terror and blackmail. It is conceivable that nanomachines could be released into an area and activated by a coded message to destroy only selected people or structures. None of the topics covered in this book was new to me, all appeared in the literature over a decade ago. Nevertheless, it was refreshing to read about them again and realize that, despite all of our problems and fears, we really are better off that we were a few decades ago. Technical progress continues at a rapid pace and offers us solutions to the difficulties that humans encounter and in some cases generate. It makes you optimistic about the future.

Great Gift for Fathers

I loved this book. My father gave it to me and I'm fascinated. There are a lot of things in here that I had no idea about -- especially scientific developments that may have huge impacts on our society. The book makes its ideas very understandable, and I especially like that they provide links to places for more information. If my father hadn't given it to me, I would have given it to him.

A dazzling dreambook!!

The book review from DingBat Magazine: Here's a fab, futurist extravaganza-nearly 300 glossy illustrated pages of where we'll probably be tomorrow. The list of contributing visionaries is impressive (Howard Rheingold, Jef Raskin, Douglas Rushkoff, and others) and the illustrations superb. Just pop open the covers and you'll be sucked right into the vortex of spellbinding trends & cutting edges... like "Floating Cities" which includes plans for the "Freedom Ship" -a city on a boat a mile long, wide as two football fields, and high as a 25-story building! There's literally something for everyone here, with sections on cloning, biotech food, smart garments, digital paper, telemedicine, the future office, cryonics, biowarfare, deep sea exploration, and a whole lot more. It's more readable than WIRED and a lot more fun. A dazzling dreambook the whole family will enjoy.

Awesome!

...bought it right away - it totally delivered. It's a great overview of the trends and new technologies that are going to influence us in the next coming years, and it's written for someone who isn't themselves a geek. I totally recommend this book for people who are interested in the future, but don't have PHD.TechTV made a decision to go "wide" rather than "deep". That let them talk about a lot of issues - there's everything in the book from the future of medical technologies to the future of the movies. The downside is that the articles are fairly short. But overall, this is an enjoyable, informative look at a wide number of trends - I highly recommend it....Here's a fab, futurist extravaganza - nearly 300 glossy illustrated pages of where we'll probably be tomorrow. The list of contributing visionaries is impressive (Howard Rheingold, Jef Raskin, Douglas Rushkoff, and others) and the illustrations superb. Just pop open the covers and you'll be sucked right into the vortex of spellbinding trends & cutting edges... like "Floating Cities" which includes plans for the "Freedom Ship" a city on a boat a mile long, wide as two football fields, and high as a 25-story building! There's literally something for everyone here, with sections on cloning, biotech food, smart garments, digital paper, telemedicine, the future office, cryonics, biowarfare, deep sea exploration, and a whole lot more. It's more readable than WIRED and a lot more fun.