Physics of the Future: How Science Will Shape Human Destiny and Our Daily Lives by the Year 2100 (2 page)

A DAY IN THE LIFE IN 2100

NOTES

RECOMMENDED READING

INDEX

ILLUSTRATION CREDITS

About the Author

Other Books by This Author

I would like to thank those individuals who have worked tirelessly to make this book a success. First, I would like to thank my editors, Roger Scholl, who guided so many of my previous books and came up with the idea for a challenging book like this, and also Edward Kastenmeier, who has patiently made countless suggestions and revisions to this book that have greatly strengthened and enhanced its presentation. I would also like to thank Stuart Krichevsky, my agent for so many years, who has always encouraged me to take on newer and more exciting challenges.

And, of course, I would like to thank the more than three hundred scientists I interviewed or had discussions with concerning science. I would like to apologize for dragging a TV camera crew from BBC-TV or the Discovery and Science channels into their laboratories and thrusting a microphone and TV camera in front of their faces. This might have disrupted their research, but I hope that the final product was worth it.

I would like to thank some of these pioneers and trailblazers:

Eric Chivian, Nobel laureate, Center for Health and the Global Environment, Harvard Medical School

Peter Doherty, Nobel laureate, St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital

Gerald Edelman, Nobel laureate, Scripps Research Institute

Murray Gell-Mann, Nobel laureate, Santa Fe Institute and Caltech

Walter Gilbert, Nobel laureate, Harvard University

David Gross, Nobel laureate, Kavli Institute for Theoretical Physics

the late Henry Kendall, Nobel laureate, MIT

Leon Lederman, Nobel laureate, Illinois Institute of Technology

Yoichiro Nambu, Nobel laureate, University of Chicago

Henry Pollack, Nobel laureate, University of Michigan

Joseph Rotblat, Nobel laureate, St. Bartholomew’s Hospital

Steven Weinberg, Nobel laureate, University of Texas at Austin

Frank Wilczek, Nobel laureate, MIT

Amir Aczel, author of
Uranium Wars

Buzz Aldrin, former NASA astronaut, second man to walk on the moon

Geoff Andersen, research associate, United States Air Force Academy, author of
The Telescope

Jay Barbree, NBC news correspondent, coauthor of
Moon Shot

John Barrow, physicist, University of Cambridge, author of
Impossibility

Marcia Bartusiak, author of
Einstein’s Unfinished Symphony

Jim Bell, professor of astronomy, Cornell University

Jeffrey Bennet, author of
Beyond UFOs

Bob Berman, astronomer, author of
Secrets of the Night Sky

Leslie Biesecker, chief of Genetic Disease Research Branch, National Institutes of Health

Piers Bizony, science writer, author of
How to Build Your Own Spaceship

Michael Blaese, former National Institutes of Health scientist

Alex Boese, founder of Museum of Hoaxes

Nick Bostrom, transhumanist, University of Oxford

Lt. Col. Robert Bowman, Institute for Space and Security Studies

Lawrence Brody, chief of the Genome Technology Branch, National Institutes of Health

Rodney Brooks, former director, MIT Artificial Intelligence Laboratory

Lester Brown, founder of Earth Policy Institute

Michael Brown, professor of astronomy, Caltech

James Canton, founder of Institute for Global Futures, author of
The Extreme Future

Arthur Caplan, director, Center for Bioethics, University of Pennsylvania

Fritjof Capra, author of
The Science of Leonardo

Sean Carroll, cosmologist, Caltech

Andrew Chaikin, author of
A Man on the Moon

Leroy Chiao, former NASA astronaut

George Church, director, Center for Computational Genetics, Harvard Medical School

Thomas Cochran, physicist, Natural Resources Defense Council

Christopher Cokinos, science writer, author of
The Fallen Sky

Francis Collins, director of the National Institutes of Health

Vicki Colvin, director of Biological and Environmental Nanotechnology, Rice University

Neil Comins, author of
The Hazards of Space Travel

Steve Cook, director of Space Technologies, Dynetics, former NASA spokesperson

Christine Cosgrove, author of
Normal at Any Cost

Steve Cousins, president and CEO, Willow Garage

Brian Cox, physicist, University of Manchester, BBC science host

Phillip Coyle, former assistant secretary of defense, U.S. Defense Department

Daniel Crevier, author of
AI: The Tumultuous History of the Search for Artificial Intelligence,
CEO of Coreco

Ken Croswell, astronomer, author of
Magnificent Universe

Steven Cummer, computer science, Duke University

Mark Cutkosky, mechanical engineering, Stanford University

Paul Davies, physicist, author of
Superforce

Aubrey de Gray, Chief Science Officer, SENS Foundation

the late Michael Dertouzos, former director, Laboratory for Computer Science, MIT

Jared Diamond, Pulitzer Prize winner, professor of geography, UCLA

Mariette DiChristina, editor in chief,
Scientific American

Peter Dilworth, former MIT AI Lab scientist

John Donoghue, creator of BrainGate, Brown University

Ann Druyan, widow of Carl Sagan, Cosmos Studios

Freeman Dyson, emeritus professor of physics, Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton

Jonathan Ellis, physicist, CERN

Daniel Fairbanks, author of
Relics of Eden

Timothy Ferris, emeritus professor at the University of California, Berkeley, author of
Coming of Age in the Milky Way

Maria Finitzo, filmmaker, Peabody Award winner,
Mapping Stem Cell Research

Robert Finkelstein, AI expert

Christopher Flavin, WorldWatch Institute

Louis Friedman, cofounder, Planetary Society

James Garvin, former NASA chief scientist, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center

Evalyn Gates, author of
Einstein’s Telescope

Jack Geiger, cofounder, Physicians for Social Responsibility

David Gelernter, professor of computer science, Yale University

Neil Gershenfeld, director, Center of Bits and Atoms, MIT

Paul Gilster, author of
Centauri Dreams

Rebecca Goldburg, former senior scientist at Environmental Defense Fund, director of Marine Science, Pew Charitable Trust

Don Goldsmith, astronomer, author of
The Runaway Universe

Seth Goldstein, professor of computer science, Carnegie Mellon University

David Goodstein, former assistant provost of Caltech, professor of physics

J. Richard Gott III, professor of astrophysical sciences, Princeton University, author of
Time Travel in Einstein’s Universe

the late Stephen Jay Gould, biologist, Harvard Lightbridge Corp.

Ambassador Thomas Graham, expert on spy satellites

John Grant, author of
Corrupted Science

Eric Green, director of the National Human Genome Research Institute, National Institutes of Health

Ronald Green, author of
Babies by Design

Brian Greene, professor of mathematics and physics, Columbia University, author of
The Elegant Universe

Alan Guth, professor of physics, MIT, author of
The Inflationary Universe

William Hanson, author of
The Edge of Medicine

Leonard Hayflick, professor of anatomy, University of California at San Francisco Medical School

Donald Hillebrand, director of Center for Transportation Research, Argonne National Laboratory

Frank von Hipple, physicist, Princeton University

Jeffrey Hoffman, former NASA astronaut, professor of aeronautics and astronautics, MIT

Douglas Hofstadter, Pulitzer Prize winner, author of
Gödel, Escher, Bach

John Horgan, Stevens Institute of Technology, author of
The End of Science

Jamie Hyneman, host of
MythBusters

Chris Impey, professor of astronomy, University of Arizona, author of
The Living Cosmos

Robert Irie, former scientist at AI Lab, MIT, Massachusetts General Hospital

P. J. Jacobowitz,
PC
magazine

Jay Jaroslav, former scientist at MIT AI Lab

Donald Johanson, paleoanthropologist, discoverer of Lucy

George Johnson, science journalist,
New York Times

Tom Jones, former NASA astronaut

Steve Kates, astronomer and radio host

Jack Kessler, professor of neurology, director of Feinberg Neuroscience Institute, Northwestern University

Robert Kirshner, astronomer, Harvard University

Kris Koenig, filmmaker and astronomer

Lawrence Krauss, Arizona State University, author of
The Physics of Star Trek

Robert Lawrence Kuhn, filmmaker and philosopher, PBS TV series
Closer to Truth

Ray Kurzweil, inventor, author of
The Age of Spiritual Machines

Robert Lanza, biotechnology, Advanced Cell Technology

Roger Launius, coauthor of
Robots in Space

Stan Lee, creator of Marvel Comics and Spider-Man

Michael Lemonick, former senior science editor,
Time
magazine, Climate Central

Arthur Lerner-Lam, geologist, volcanist, Columbia University

Simon LeVay, author of
When Science Goes Wrong

John Lewis, astronomer, University of Arizona

Alan Lightman, MIT, author of
Einstein’s Dreams