The Science of What We'll Eat, Where We'll Live, and Who We'll Be
August 28, 2023
The unsatisfying latest from Ingram (The Science of Why), the former host of Discovery Channel Canada’s Daily Planet, muses on how coming technological advances might influence how humans live. Unfortunately, Ingram’s commentary is largely familiar and superficial. Examining the future of aging, he repeats the common prediction that the “first 150-year-old is already alive today” and notes that “scientists are now hot on the trail of identifying the substance(s) in the blood that could be responsible for literally turning back the clock” without further discussing the research. He also comes up short in interpreting his data, as when he strings together brief anecdotes about the “well-planned public transit” in Curitiba, Brazil; the high-tech methods Chattanooga, Tenn., has implemented to ease traffic; and Seoul’s mass surveillance to make the obvious point that “enhanced technology will be ubiquitous in how cities are shaped.” Despite touching on such potentially fascinating topics as the benefits of lab-grown pet foods, advances in prosthetic limbs, and strategies for mitigating climate change, the discussions are cursory and feel rudderless in the absence of overarching analysis tying the disparate evidence together. Readers curious about the future would be better off with a Magic 8 Ball.
September 1, 2023
Ingram, an award-winning science writer whose many books include the Science of Why series, takes readers across a broad spectrum of scientific research in diverse fields and how they may pertain to our future. He examines the many challenges engendered by the growing human population and all the environmental strain that causes in a positive, constructive way as he reports on medical, agricultural, astronomical, and technological experiments. It's always illuminating to look at claims in sf tales from the past to see how those visions compare with current reality; Ingram makes clever use of this entertaining practice to frame his discussions. His focus is on well-sourced, cutting-edge endeavors, such as cybernetic implants, limb regeneration, genetically modified organisms, plans to colonize the solar system, and the search for extraterrestrial life. The result is a thoroughly enjoyable read, largely free from doom-and-gloom scenarios, although many may find the idea of swapping hamburgers for ground-up insects or lab-grown meat to be pretty close to dystopian. An invaluable overview of today's science and how it could shape tomorrow.
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