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Ten Emerging Technologies That'll Improve and/or Ruin Everything

By Kelly and Zach Weinersmith

From a top scientist and the creator of the hugely popular web comic Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal, a hilariously illustrated investigation into future technologies--from how to fling a ship into deep space on the cheap to 3D organ printing. Learn more.


Available Now

"Playful, yet deep."
- Dr. George Church, Harvard University
"Space elevators, gold asteroids, and fusion-powered toasters - who knew science could be so much fun? And who knew fun could be so scientific? 'Soonish' is hilarious, provocative, and shamelessly informative."
- Tim Harford, author of "Messy" and "The Undercover Economist"
Published by Particular Books
Advance praise for SOONISH
"Basically, I think this book is a masterpiece, and something I wish I'd written myself."
- Scott Aaronson, David J. Bruton Centennial Professor of Computer Science at the University of Texas at Austin and author of Quantum Computing Since Democritus
"I love this book so much I 3D printed myself a second heart so I could love it more."
- Dr. Phil Plait, astronomer, author, writer of the Bad Astronomy Blog
"Kelly and Zach promised me a crystal ball, but what I got is both more insightful and far more entertaining than staring into a dumb glass orb. Soonish will make you laugh and -- without you even realizing it -- give you insight into the most ambitious technological feats of our time. You should read this book, sooner than soonish."
- Alexis Ohanian, Cofounder of Reddit
By setting their sights on the immediate frontier rather than the distant future or the recent past Kelly and Zach have managed to write a non-fictional page-turner that is as fascinating as it is hilarious. "Soonish" is a story about human potential at a time when too many doubt it, and will make you feel smarter and unusually hopeful for what's about to come. "Soonish" is both the book for the lover of the pop-science medium who's been waiting for the genre to achieve its highest potential, as well the one that can win over the pop-sci cynic bored by the latest reprint of Chicken Soup for the Bachelor of Science's soul.
- Walt Hickey, Chief Culture Writer for fivethirtyeight
What will the world of tomorrow be like? How does progress happen? And why do we not have a lunar colony already? What is the hold-up?
In this smart and funny book, celebrated cartoonist Zach Weinersmith and noted researcher Dr. Kelly Weinersmith give us a snapshot of what's coming next--from robot swarms to nuclear fusion powered-toasters. By weaving their own research, interviews with the scientists who are making these advances happen, and Zach's trademark comics, the Weinersmiths investigate why these technologies are needed, how they would work, and what is standing in their way.
New technologies are almost never the work of isolated geniuses with a neat idea. A given future technology may need any number of intermediate technologies to develop first, and many of these critical advances may appear to be irrelevant when they are first discovered. The journey to progress is full of strange detours and blind alleys that tell us so much about the human mind and the march of civilization.
To this end, SOONISH investigates ten different emerging fields, from programmable matter to augmented reality, from space elevators to robotic construction, to show us the amazing world we will have, you know, soonish.
Dr. Kelly Weinersmith is Adjunct Faculty in the BioSciences Department at Rice University, where she studies parasites that manipulate the behavior of their hosts. In addition to being a respected researcher, she cohosts Science... Sort Of, which is one of the top 20 natural science podcasts. Kelly spoke at Smithsonian Magazine's "The Future is Here 2015," and her work has been featured in The Atlantic, Science, Nature, National Geographic, BBC World, Gizmodo, and CBC's Quirks and Quarks.
Zach Weinersmith is the cartoonist behind the popular geek webcomic Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal. His work has been featured in The Economist, The Wall Street Journal, Slate, Forbes, Science Friday, Boingboing, the Freakonomics Blog, the RadioLab blog, Entertainment Weekly, Mother Jones, CNN, Discovery Magazine, and more.
Contact Information
Matt Hutchinson
MHutchinson@penguinrandomhouse.co.uk
Non-US or UK Versions Coming Soon
International publishers of SOONISH:
Carl Hanser Verlag (Germany),
Hunan Science and Technology Press (China),
Sigongsa Co. (Korea),
Atticus-Azbooka (Russia),
Arab Scientific (Arabic),
Intrinseca (Brazil),
Commonwealth (Taiwan)
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