The Long History of the Future: Why Tomorrow's Tech Still Isn't Here
by Nicole Kobie
Genres: History, Non-fiction, SciencePages: 368
Rating:
Synopsis:We love to imagine the future. But why is dramatic future technology always just around the corner, and never a reality?
For decades we've delighted in dreaming about a sci-fi utopia, from flying cars and bionic humans to hoverboards; with driverless cars first proposed at the 1939 World's Fair. And why not? Building a better world, be it a free-flying commute or an automated urban lifestyle is a worthy dream. Given the pace of technological change, nothing seems impossible anymore. But why are these innovations always out of reach?
Delving into the remarkable history of technology, The Long History of the Future also looks at what lies ahead, showing how the origins of our technology may provide insight into how it realistically evolves. You may never be able to buy a fully driverless car, but automated braking and steering could slash collision rates. Smart cities won't perfect city life, but they could help bins be emptied on time. Hyperloops may never arrive, but superfast trains could fill the gap.
Looking to the future, Nicole Kobie demonstrates how despite our belief that current technology is the best it could ever be, the future always proves us wrong, and there is much to look forward to.
Nicole Kobie’s The Long History of the Future looks at the kind of things that we feel we’ve been promised by visions of the future, and why they’re still so far in the future — flying cars, self-driving cars, robot butlers, true AI, etc. Most of these are not my subject, so it’s hard to evaluate on those terms, but Kobie’s explanations make good sense, and make mention not just of physical constraints but also other things like legislative and practical issues. For example… do you really want flying cars passing by your windows every couple of minutes? How would the noise issues be handled? How would flight paths be handled?
In general, I’m not myself super interested in flying cars or robot butlers, cool as it sounds on paper, but I enjoyed Kobie’s exploration of why those things aren’t ready yet, and why they’re harder than they look. I was reassured that she wasn’t all-in on AI, though I could’ve stood to see her be even more critical of things like the environmental impact and copyright theft.
I flagged a bit toward the end of the book, as sometimes it felt like there was a bit of padding — did we really need to hear a blow-by-blow of an event in which students showed off their model hyperloop designs, which didn’t work because the batteries were flat? But overall it was interesting.
Rating: 3/5
This sounds like an interesting idea for a book. I’d almost want it to show both sides, though—what “future tech” we don’t have yet, vs. what we DO have already.
It sort of does — for each thing (like flying cars or robots) it does discuss what we already have versus what we want. In some cases, we have quite a lot, but it’s not very commercially applicable, for instance.