A Book for the SciFi Inspired to the Technologically Challenged

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	• Radical Evolution: The Promise and Peril of Enhancing Our Minds, Our Bodies -- and What It Means to Be Human Joel Garreau Broadway, 2006 - 400 pages average customer review:based on 31 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

Joel Garreau doesn't play favorites

Just finished reading this book, and I must say that it is the perfect book for anyone who wants to read about cutting edge technology from the perspective of someone relatively unbiased. Unlike popular figures who promote or scorn the future of human science, Garreau explains the situation intelligently, using several examples from people with all different points of view. I recommend this book for anyone who wants a brush up on where technology is going, as well as anyone who might be interested in reconciling their current views with the other side. Everyone might not get the same things as me out of this, but thanks to Garreau's book, I'm beginning to come to terms with my place in where it looks like this world- and humanities role in it- might be going.

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O the possibilities

Joel Garreau's Radical Evolution is a trip through our wildest fantasies, where anything is possible. This in-depth analysis of what may be in store for our earth and the human species can, at times, seem intriguing, frightening, mind-boggling or even overwhelming, but never boring. Garreau's overall aim is to inform a general audience of the vast changes that are currently reshaping our selves, our children and our relationships. To do this he focuses on the advancements of what he calls the "GRIN" technologies, or genetics, robotics, information, and nano-tech. He presents his work and scenario predictions through scientific research and entertaining depictions of scientists and pioneers in various fields, all of whom hold widely different views
Following a brief background of defining scenarios and what they entail, Garreau begins his analysis of future scenarios by introducing the idea of the "The Curve" or the rate of exponential change in technology and the Singularity scenario. He demonstrates "the curve" through the progression of "GRIN" technologies, while also setting the scene for the remainder of the book, which focuses on the various potential outcomes of these advancements.
Garreau divides the majority of the book into four scenarios, "Heaven," "Hell," "Prevail," and "Transcend." Although he defines them separately, he believes that the future is usually a combination of all the stories you can construct to anticipate it. While reading the book, this is a good outlook to have because the scenarios presented are radical. In the "Heaven" scenario, supported predominantly by Ray Kurzweil, positive technological advancements have led to a Utopian society. In this prediction the human race has achieved perfection on all realms. In the "hell scenario," a complete contradiction of the "heaven" one, everything goes awry. In this pessimistic forecast, primarily described by Bill Joy, the human species not only fails to thrive, but has to fight for survival against the technology it created. "Prevail," presented by Janor Lanier is a scenario in which the human race "muddles through." In this forecast we do not excel, but we do survive. Lanier believes that as we advance we will create and discover new problems but, like always, we will get through them. It is important to know that Garreau describes the first three as not being on a line, but forming a triangle where the two base points are the "heaven" and "hell" scenarios. This entails that Prevail, although a more moderate scenario is not a mid-point between the other two.
The last major scenario presented in the book is "transcend," which forecasts the world transforming beyond our wildest dreams. The information here is hardly feasible and at times hard to grasp. Overall the book is fascinating and paradigm shifting, leading the reader to evaluate the presented scenarios and challenge preconceived notions about what the future entails.

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How can we maintain in the midst of what's ahead?

Radical Evolution, by Joel Garreau is one of the most insightful, down to earth and wonderful reads about the field of futures thinking, futures studies and many other things future-related. Garreau depicts for the reader in his work how we have already begun the development of technologies that will lead us into the following decades and how the development of these new technologies, and the way in which humanity implements them, will fundamentally alter and forever change what it means to be human and to exist in this world. Garreau's theories and brilliant depictions of many possible future scenarios are easily understood; he is extremely careful and precise in his vivid manner of relating seemingly complex moral, ethical and physical future situations to the reader. The effectiveness of his work shines through in his "everyman" approach to discussing the material within the book's pages. Although he is a professional and scholar in the field of futures studies and futures thinking, Garreau never seems to put himself above the reader. Radical Evolution is not a lecture, more, this book is a sort of conversation between the reader and Garreau. If you compare this book to others that include projections of the future, at least half of Garreau's work/chapters stand out far from the rest. Instead of merely making worked-over and tired predictions about the future of humanity and our developing technologies, Garreau details in three of the eight chapters in Radical Evolution, three separate and distinct scenarios for the future of mankind. Chapter 4, heartwarmingly titled Heaven, exhibits the ultimate in desired futures: a place where work is done by the technologies we've developed and humans enjoy lives of leisure. The Heaven scenario depicts a place where, if we have not cured all, or even most, of the diseases that plague the human body, we are extremely close. In Chapter 5 the reader comprehends (rather fearfully at times) Garreau's Hell scenario, in which the title explains it all. Quickly, Garreau revives the reader with a chapter that outlines his Prevail prediction/scenario in which the future has a more human (perhaps faulty) approach, meaning, not all is well at first, things go wrong, etc. however mankind will carry on. Radical Evolution is a fair and balanced portrayal of both good and bad, order and chaos, light and dark and moral and evil. Radical Evolution paints an in-depth, touching and rich portrait about where mankind is heading, outlining how we are propelling ourselves there slowly but surely and most importantly, helping to define what it all means for the individual.

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Radical Evolution

Radical Evolution was written by Joel Garreu and is subtitled The Promise and Peril of Enhancing Our Minds, Our Bodies--and what it means to be Human. The book leaves many ideas in a readers head about what is going to come of humanity, and what is in store for our future. Many researchers and scientists are interviewed throughout the book to give realistic ideas about possibilities dealing with technological, genetic, and philosophical changes that can possibly occur in the future. Garreau notes that the first difficulty in the world today is "making sense of the world unfolding before us, in which we face the biggest challenge in tens of thousands of years in what it means to be human". The book aims at helping to shape our world, our lives, our children, and our relationships.
Many different advancements in the world are being worked on as we speak such as mood-enhancing drugs, metabolism-enhancing drugs, drugs that will enable us to live without sleeping nearly as much as we do, and increasing mental capacity with genetic machines. Garreau's book dives into the ideas and endless possibilities behind GRIN technologies. GRIN technologies include genetics, robotics, information technology, and nanotechnology. Throughout the book, the author also explores the idea of how the world is going to end up. He presents many different scenarios that can formulate the world that will surround our children as they grow up. These possibilities include the heaven scenario, the hell scenario, and the prevail scenario. It is obvious throughout the book that the author leads towards the prevail scenario in which we take the "two steps forward, and one step back" philosophy and we end up successfully slowly continuing our future.
The book was extremely well written and a difficult book to put down after you begin reading it. It is shocking to find out that in our future, our bodies can be changed so much that dieting and exercise could become a thing of the past. Garreau did a wonderful job researching and finding information and advancements in technology that can be important throughout the future of our lives. The book is a prime example of a post-human future in which society uses advancements in technology to allow humans to shape their lives, bodies, minds, and well being. This book introduces the idea that our technologies are beginning to merge with our minds, our memories, our metabolisms, our personalities, our progeny, and even beginning to merge with our souls.

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A Book for the SciFi Inspired to the Technologically Challenged

Reading Radical Evolution is like reading a "How to" column - you are always surprised what can really be done. The book opens with a number of mind boggling bits of research talking about things from telekinesis to a device that gives soldiers x-ray vision; the funny thing is that these things are really occurring in laboratories as we speak. The purpose of the book is to provide an understandable, digested version of the work that is happening in Futuring land. Futuring, for those who are not in the know, is simply the study of trends and projections in an effort to forecast the future. Much like a meteorologist predicts the weather, futurists attempt to predict the social, political, technological, and economic climate 50 to 100 to a 1,000 years in advance. The book tries to stay neutral, explaining the possible horrors and terrors of advancing technology, but it clear from the first page to the back cover that its author, Joel Garreau, is a big supporter of advancements in technologies. Beyond the first couple examples, he goes further to describing how technologies can affect every bit of our being. Surveying the thoughts and opinions of numerous, credible futurists, he talks about how little robots can allow us to live in to our 200 hundreds and how we may have space colonies on the moon before we know it. The title, Radical Evolution, comes from the idea that through these advancements in technology, we, as humans, are creating a radical chain of evolution that is pushing past any boundaries that nature had set for us. It is even argued that we are actually transcending our humanity through these changes.
In the middle of the book he presents a point/counter-point discussion of the future technology, appropriately labeled "Heaven" and "Hell"; the greatest possible outcomes pinned against the most devastating consequences force the reader to ponder the benefits of new technology. As a compromise, Garreau offers a scenario in which humans simply prevail, this is neither a scenario of humanities grandeur or it's defeat, but rather a median between both extremes. Finally, Garreau admits the limited view that even the greatest researchers have in terms of looking at the future. People can make predictions to their hearts content, but in the end chance happenings and unplanned events can transform the course of any one prediction. All that any futurist can do is take the best information available and make a thorough forecast off with that data, supporting the argument until the next trend arrives.

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