Terraforming Mars, Interstellar Travel, Immortality, and Our Destiny Beyond Earth
January 15, 2018
Enthusiastic scientific speculation on the future of space travel.Acclaimed science popularizer Kaku (The Future of the Mind: The Scientific Quest to Understand, Enhance, and Empower the Mind, 2014, etc.), the co-founder of string field theory, confines his expertise to physics, but the 226 experts listed in the acknowledgements have plenty to offer on a variety of scientific disciplines. Alert readers will notice that the stirring words "we are entering a new golden age of space travel when exploring the universe will once again become an exciting part of the national agenda after decades of neglect" are not the author's. That statement applies to China, the single nation with an active national manned space program and leaders eager to mortify the United States, its superpower rival. Having accomplished the feat of the Apollo moon landing in 1969, the U.S. government, it seems, feels no pressure to keep up with the Chinese. National rivalries aside, our current technology, writes the author, will get us to Mars. However, making Mars as habitable as Earth ("terraforming"), traveling to far planets and their moons, mining precious metals from asteroids, and voyaging to the stars will require technical advances that are well underway and a revolution in energy that, sadly, is not. Computer efficiency has increased astronomically since World War II, and rocket motor efficiency has perhaps tripled. Always optimistic and undaunted, Kaku delivers a fascinating and scattershot series of scenarios in which humans overcome current obstacles without violating natural laws to travel the universe. The author digresses regularly into related areas of study, including extrasolar planets, radical life extension, intelligent robots, and the details of settling other worlds.An exhilarating look at the future, although American readers may yearn for a Chinese bombshell (a la Russia's launch of Sputnik in 1957) to stimulate the U.S. government to achieve at least one marvel during their lifetimes.
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February 12, 2018
Theoretical physicist Kaku (The Future of the Mind) wonderfully illuminates possible ways the human race could survive on other planets. Kaku, certain that “either we must leave the Earth or we will perish,” begins with a brief history of humanity’s space-faring efforts before turning to current efforts to return to the Moon and reach Mars, led by billionaires such as Jeff Bezos, Richard Branson, and Elon Musk. After discussing how Mars might be rendered livable, Kaku describes the possibility of reaching bodies beyond our solar system. Following these theoretical milestones, Kaku plots increasingly speculative ways that humans might reach further solar systems and eventually escape the end of the universe itself. The lengthy journeys required to reach such destinations prompt discussions of robots and AI, ways in which humans might become immortal, and the characteristics of advanced alien civilizations. Kaku generally keeps his concepts understandable (one notable exception is his use of string theory in explaining how we could travel to other universes), aided by pop culture references to Star Trek and science fiction novels. Given Kaku’s track record of bestselling popular science books, this work, too, should go far.
September 15, 2017
Having debuted at No. 1 on the New York Times best sellers list with 2014's The Future of the Mind, celebrated CUNY physicist Kaku goes back to the future with this study of how humans might eventually move away from Earth and build a sustainable civilization out there somewhere. Kaku's three million Facebook fans and 600,000 Twitter followers will be thrilled.
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