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A review by annemaries_shelves
The Future of Humanity: Terraforming Mars, Interstellar Travel, Immortality and Our Destiny Beyond Earth by Michio Kaku
4.0
I really enjoyed this book! It’s a great introductory exploration of space travel - where we are currently, the near future possibilities, and the long term goals of space exploration and survival.
The tone is conversational but intelligent - with an occasional dry humour that I really appreciated.
The structure of the book worked well for me - we start out with what we’ve currently done, the science around visiting and terraforming Mars (including some discussion about robots and artificial intelligence), and then we branch out to discuss interstellar travel, and later inter-galaxy and multiverse travel.
There were a few times where his digressions on the science of how things worked (aka all the physics theories) got a little much, but just when I was getting confused (though granted that was after 6 hours of reading already) he would bring it back to the original thesis and summarize things in a very comprehensible manner. Unfortunately he doesn’t spend too much time addressing the ethical questions surrounding some of the possible outcomes of space exploration, colonies, and expansion (particularly those around wealth and classism), which is a shame.
There are so many excellent sci-fi movie and story references throughout the book to help highlight ideas. That said, if you don’t want spoilers for a particular film, don’t read that paragraph because there are definitely spoilers!
I also recommend reading The Paper Menagerie and Other Stories by Ken Liu, several of his short stories in that collection actually use and grapple with the science and inherent travel issues that are proposed and discussed in Kaku’s book (ex. Multigenerational Star ships). It made for an excellent (though unintentional) read-along experience.
Overall, I really enjoyed the book - as evidenced by my binging it in two days. It serves as a great jumping off point for a curious reader’s extra research, and makes you think about how humans should or shouldn’t, and may or may not succeed in space travel.
Definitely recommend for anyone interested in a broad but well-researched and intelligent overview of where we’re going with space travel in the next few decades and centuries.
The tone is conversational but intelligent - with an occasional dry humour that I really appreciated.
The structure of the book worked well for me - we start out with what we’ve currently done, the science around visiting and terraforming Mars (including some discussion about robots and artificial intelligence), and then we branch out to discuss interstellar travel, and later inter-galaxy and multiverse travel.
There were a few times where his digressions on the science of how things worked (aka all the physics theories) got a little much, but just when I was getting confused (though granted that was after 6 hours of reading already) he would bring it back to the original thesis and summarize things in a very comprehensible manner. Unfortunately he doesn’t spend too much time addressing the ethical questions surrounding some of the possible outcomes of space exploration, colonies, and expansion (particularly those around wealth and classism), which is a shame.
There are so many excellent sci-fi movie and story references throughout the book to help highlight ideas. That said, if you don’t want spoilers for a particular film, don’t read that paragraph because there are definitely spoilers!
I also recommend reading The Paper Menagerie and Other Stories by Ken Liu, several of his short stories in that collection actually use and grapple with the science and inherent travel issues that are proposed and discussed in Kaku’s book (ex. Multigenerational Star ships). It made for an excellent (though unintentional) read-along experience.
Overall, I really enjoyed the book - as evidenced by my binging it in two days. It serves as a great jumping off point for a curious reader’s extra research, and makes you think about how humans should or shouldn’t, and may or may not succeed in space travel.
Definitely recommend for anyone interested in a broad but well-researched and intelligent overview of where we’re going with space travel in the next few decades and centuries.