| Year Million: Science at the Far Edge of Knowledge | 
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Avg. Customer Rating:   (based on 6 reviews)
Sales Rank: 156544
Category: Book
Publisher: Atlas & Co.
Studio: Atlas & Co.
Manufacturer: Atlas & Co.
Label: Atlas & Co.
Languages: English (Original Language), English (Unknown), English (Published)
Media: Paperback
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 304
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.8
Dimensions (in): 7.1 x 5.1 x 1
ISBN: 0977743349
Dewey Decimal Number: 003.2
EAN: 9780977743346
ASIN: 0977743349
Publication Date: May 26, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Product Description
Leading and up-and-coming scientists and science writers cast their minds one million years into the future to imagine the fate of the human and/or extraterrestrial galaxy.
This volume of fifteen new, specially commissioned essays by notable journalists and scholars such as Rudy Rucker, Jim Holt, and Gregory Benford presents a series of speculations on the most radical but well-grounded ideas they can conceive, projecting the universe as it might be in the year 1,000,000 C.E. Their collective effort?first attempted by H. G. Wells in his 1893 essay "The Man of the Year Million"?is an exploration into a barely conceivable distant future, where the authors confront far-flung possibilities, at times bordering on philosophy of science. How would the galaxy look if it were redesigned for optimal energy use and maximized intelligence? What is a universe bereft of stars?
Contributors include Amara D. Angelica, Catherine Asaro, Gregory Benford, Robert Bradbury, Sean M. Carroll, Anne Corwin, Dougal Dixon, Robin Hanson, Steven B. Harris, Jim Holt, Lisa Kaltenegger, Wil McCarthy, Rudy Rucker, Pamela Sargent, and George Zebrowski.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 1 more reviews...
 Words fail me November 10, 2008
Utterly mind-blowing look into what the human race might become. Read this book, then meditate on it, and you will find yourself wrestling with questions like "How is a sufficiently advanced civilization different from God?" and "If we can all connect to each other using some future version of the internet to the point where we can experience each other's thoughts and feelings instantaneously and expand our intellect to the point of processing all of those experiences and understandings simultaneously, what need is there for a self?" The first chapter is a bit math heavy, but don't let that discourage you - follow it as best you can, because the reward of reading this book is as incalculable as some of the stuff our descendants will be doing.
A must September 26, 2008
This book is simply the best existing summary of current, cutting-edge hypotheses, projections and estrapolations concerning our distant future, having regard both to posthuman changes and to a more cosmological scale.
The subject is attacked from very different angles by a diverse set of contributors who mix vision, technicalities, and - why not? - a poetic sense of what our presence and possible long-term survival in this universe may imply.
A fascinating scenario indeed, and a transhumanist challenge to old biases...
Year Million is an awesome read. August 24, 2008
4 out of 4 found this review helpful
This is a book from several leading scientists/mathematicians/speculators, that for an inquiring mind of what the future holds, will keep you reading deep into the night. It is a very optimistically rounded off point of view of what the world may/ or may not be in a million years from now. No where will you find nuclear extinction or, cataclysmic astroid deaths. This is a book of mere speculation of the human race surviving to the year million; but a very creative read. Their are 13 contributing authors, and each essay has a different take on what the future holds. I found the first half of the book to be a completely awesome read. And I skipped a couple chapters in the middle, but the end was pretty good; talking about how the universe's infinite expansion could be met by human kind's or intelligent life's willingness to survive past the death of our sun, and the forever cold universe: stretching out and slowing down its life functions. Many times throughout the book, there are few hard facts on how some things can be done, and much of it is left up to a science fiction take on things. But, then again we are talking about life 1 million years from now. This is a very intriguing read for anyone curious about what life could hold 999,900 years after our generation's bones are all buried and dried up.
Fascinating Exercises for Your Mind August 4, 2008
3 out of 3 found this review helpful
This book stretches anyone's mind. No matter how much science fiction one has read, or futurist literature --there are new ideas contained within the pages of Year Million. Not all the writers are equal, some are better than others--but a few shine brilliantly. You can read and disagree, formulate your own ideas--or nod your head with the 'hmmm' moments when you agree. It is a fun book, I highly enjoyed it.
Highly Recommend! August 2, 2008
7 out of 7 found this review helpful
What an awesome awesome book! I haven't enjoyed a new book that can plausibly be construed as sci-fi for a while. The book is basically a collection of essays by a number of experts in their respective fields. The subjects range from the significance of prime numbers vs. humor, extending human life span, and very very very far off future. The overall claim is that we will basically become aliens with god like abilities (that is unless we do ourselves in first). There are a number of references at the end of the book that are worth looking up.
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