futurism Archives - TheWayoftheWeb

At least it is while I’m reading my latest book purchase. I always love looking through charity shops to see what people once wanted but have let go due to changing tastes, changing fashions etc. And occasionally you stumble across something like ‘The Road Ahead’ by Bill Gates for the bargain price of £1!

For one thing, it’s hard not to be impressed when the cover was shot by Annie Leibovitz – puts all the talk of ‘rock star’ marketeers and developers now into perspective!

The other is that I’ve only skimmed the first few page so far, but there’s a lot that seems to have now come true, some stuff that may still happen and a very wise and somewhat touching prediction that people may laugh at anything the book gets wrong… Looking forward to sitting down with this and making some notes…

Oh, and if you can’t be bothered to wander down to your local charity shop, it’s available online for the cost of postage plus 1p.

As a New York Times bestseller which has received countless positive reviews, and which features a quote from The Daily Show’s Jon Stewart on the cover saying ‘This book is awesome’, it’s safe to say you may have already heard about ‘Wired for War: The Robotics Revolution and Conflict in the 21st Century‘ by P.W. Singer, but if not, I strongly suggest you take a look at it.

I’d recommend it to anyone with an interest in technology, futurism, AI, etc whether or not you have an interest in the military itself or find warfare abhorrent. Singer is quite open in the fact that he has attempted to write for people interested in technology as much as the military, and does a great job of blending scholarly information, awe at the progress of robotics, and character stories in a readable way.

It’s fairly substantial, with the paperback hitting 436 pages before the acknowledgements and footnotes, and the fact I’ve raced through it in a matter of days shows that it’s pretty digestible despite the fact it’s got a lot of interesting, useful and surprising facts. And there are a lot of references to consumer technology alongside the military applications, whether it’s because iRobot split their time between army products and the Roomba, or because warehouse management technology can be applied to U.S Navy ships.

The future is now…

Great book for fans of technology, futurism or ‘fracking cool robots’