The Future of Humanity

Michio Kaku has been fascinating to me; I’ve been reading up on his work regarding string field theory for awhile now. In addition, a reading the Three Body Problem Trilogy, I’ve really been bitten by the futurism bug, and that led me to finally pick up this book, which has been on my shelf for awhile. I’ve recently made a bit of a transition in my thinking about the field of futurism (if you can call it that). I used to see it as a fun topic to speculate on, but not one with the kind of actionable, present-day implications that one might think. The more I have gotten into the study of how society progresses technological change, the unpredictable speed of that change, and the need to make decisions today that will create chain reactions extending far into the future, however, the more I have realized just how important (and misunderstood) this field of study is.

This book was helpful — it gives Kaku’s overview of the most important movements and technologies he sees that will come about during the remainder of the 21st century, and speculates on those that will take until the 22nd century to come to completion. Both of these sections are given equal rigor and treatment. He begins with a pre-history that provides a great reminder of how quickly past innovations have subsumed society, from the central governor and rail systems to air-flight, propulsion, rocketry and our early forays into space. That transitions into a great review of the physics, economic and political challenges ahead of us in our explorations and inhabitations of the moon, mars, and beyond during the 21st century, as well as a prediction of some of the existential risks we can counter by venturing to space.

It is in the fields of extending human life, biological engineering and general artificial intelligence where Kaku is more speculative (as he should be given the variance of outcomes and timelines we can expect in these fields). Perhaps the most startling assertion I found in the book is that of our future dealings with intelligent extraterrestrial life. Kaku does seem to be bold in his belief that we will encounter and potentially communicate with (or at least receive communication from) extraterrestrial life during the 21st century. He even cites a college who believes that this might happen before 2025 (this book was published in 2018). I do think, irrespective of whether that will occur, the constant ridicule of organizations focusing on such a potential outcome is counterintuitive, and Kaku is right to make that charge. The fact that there is no (public) agreed upon intergovernmental plan for dealing with that arguably likely future (even if it happens much in the future) helps no one.

I enjoyed this introduction to Kaku’s writing, and plan to read and buy the rest of his works. I think the next book of his that I will try is Hyperspace.