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Catalog of Tomorrow
By Andrew Zolli (Editor)
288pp. Indianapolis, IN: Que Publishing. $29.99
Predicting the future is a risky business. Raised on a steady diet of pulp comic books and middlebrow science fiction from Hollywood, most Americans see the future as either some utopian fantasy filled with benign extra terrestrials or a dark apocalypse. Somewhere in between lies the plausible.
In a book that can only be described as utterly fascinating, a group of authors has taken the pulse of human knowledge and peered a few years ahead. The Catalog of Tomorrow is a collection of essays by the leading lights in a number of fields. Bringing their expertise and obvious enthusiasm to the task, they have assembled an eminently readable and compelling work.
Anyone who prides themselves on keeping up with trends and inventions will undoubtedly find things that they never heard of. Of course the usual prime time issues of global warming and ozone depletion are discussed, but where the book really hits the mark is little known technologies that potentially may have a huge impact. You'll never know how little you knew until you read this book.
An interesting theme of the book seems to be that, while technology marches ahead, people often refuse to accommodate the inventions. While online grocery shopping and e-books are possible, those pesky human beings just don't want to change their ways. Perhaps with the advent of cellular robots and cyborg implants, both discussed at length in the book, the wetware can be modified.
What makes the Catalog especially enjoyable is that it is not some Buck Rogers fantasy of the future - although you'd be surprised at the number of references to Star Trek. Rather, these are all technologies and ideas that are currently being developed. Some are undoubtedly destined for the dustbin of history, as the authors themselves freely admit, but this panoramic overview of the cutting edge should captivate anyone's imagination.
Moreover, while some of the articles may be of more interest to the high school student than the businessperson, there are plenty of things for the merchant-minded. The chapter on advertising, for example, not only lays out the grim future of spam and pop-ups, but poses an excellent question: "Will people pay extra not to be advertised to? How much?" Indeed.
Especially gratifying is that the authors take the time to consider the implications of all this new technology. Too often magazine articles and television specials merely report on the latest inventions without adequately considering the consequences. Each article in the Catalog has a "Provocations" section that poses thoughtful questions arising from all the cool new stuff just described.
And plenty of cool new stuff there is. The chapter on haptics, for example, describes the efforts to create tactile interaction with computers while the chapter on artificial intelligence leaves open the possibility that computers may someday no longer wish to touch humans. Of course it's a cliché, but fact often is stranger than fiction.
Special mention must also be made of the book's design. Clearly taking great pains and sparing no expense, the publishers have produced a truly dazzling volume that should set a model for others to follow. In addition to the excellent color photographs and graphs, the editors have thoughtfully included URLs for further reading as well as a clever "risks/rewards" assessment of each technology discussed. Bravo.
Remembering that even Nostradamus had his off days, readers of the Catalog should probably not invest their life savings in anything described in the book. After all, nuclear power was originally touted as being "too cheap to meter" and online currency seemed like a good idea at the time. But for an absorbing and intelligent look ahead, the Catalog of Tomorrow is time well spent.
Stay tuned.
Author: Jonathan Jackson
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