BOOK REVIEW: _Our Molecular Future_

From: Terry W. Colvin (fortean1@mindspring.com)
Date: Sat Jul 26 2003 - 10:10:03 MDT

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    _Our Molecular Future: How nanotechnology, robotics, genetics, and artificial
    intelligence will transform our world_ by Douglas Mulhall

    Prometheus Books, 2002, HB, 392PP, Bib, Ind, Illus, $28.00, ISBN 1 57392 9921

    Futurology can be a funny business. Like science fiction with an MBA, tomes
    such as *Our Molecular Future* inevitably tell you more about the concerns
    of the present than the path of the future. They can often be at their
    most fascinating 10 or 50 years down the line, when you can marvel at how
    much they got right or, more usually, chortle at how wrong they were in
    their extremes of optimism or pessimism. And in many cases, there's a
    certain strain of quasi-religious revelation about the whole exercise.

    Douglas Mulhall, a journalist and sustainable development consultant, sets
    out to be speculative rather than predictive, and dedicates the book to
    anyone "who walks the perilous path between those who claim that technology
    will solve our problems, and those who say it will destroy us" -- a suitably
    fortean ideal. Disappointingly, his own writing sometimes fails to live up
    to that standard.

    *Our Molecular Future* is centred on the potential of molecular
    nanotechnology -- the manipulation of matter at the molecular level, as
    popularised in the late 1970s by Eric Drexler. The first half of the book
    is a fairly straightforward prognostication of the potential benefits or
    problems of the technological vanguard. According to Mulhall, nanotech
    promises to revolutionise society and economy, deliver virtually free
    energy and the flying car, and save humankind from terrorism, earthquake,
    disease and asteroid impact.

    Interlinked areas of robotics, artificial intelligence, virtual reality
    and genetic manipulation also come into play. The book opens with the
    concept of 'singularity' -- the point at which humans are effectively
    rendered obsolete by advancing machine intelligence, unless we decide
    to upgrade ourselves of course. It closes 300 pages later with the
    assurance that nanotechnology can enable us to "transcend our dark side
    and enter a new era".

    Although Mulhall displays some scepticism towards the more outré claims
    of the Extropian movement and suchlike techno-utopians, there's an
    inescapable note of visionary evangelism in his own writings.
    Interestingly, he tells of how he was struck by a sudden realisation of
    the fragility of Earth civilisation while observing the Shoemaker-Levy
    comet crash into Jupiter in 1994, a moment of illuminating epiphany.

    The central section of the book details the many natural catastrophes
    that could cripple or destroy civilisation, and includes a detour into
    historical catastrophism and the fate of Atlantis, complete with an
    appearance by the ubiquitous Graham Hancock. New technologies, of
    course, can deliver us from such fates. This juxtaposition of ideas
    did, however, make me ponder that perhaps Atlantis developed into a
    truly nanotech civilisation, and the reason its ruins have gone as yet
    undiscovered is because they're really, really wee.

    Mulhall has deliberately set out to write the 21st century equivalent of
    Alvin Toffler's *Future Shock.* Various sections of his wilder speculation
    are likely to alienate technologist and environmentalist alike, and his
    rather excitable rhetoric doesn't always help: molecular nanotechnology is
    like "a magma dome rumbling beneath the surface of society, ready to blast
    out from countless vents, burn away every obsolete technology, and establish
    a new substrate on which to build", apparently.

    The other problem with books such as this is that they very rapidly become
    outdated. In the early chapters, Mulhall provides a rapid introduction to
    cutting-edge nanotech research, including the groundbreaking research at
    Bell Labs in the U.S. Since the book's publication, much of this research
    has been discredited following the discovery of fraud involving star
    researcher Hendrik Schön.

    Nonetheless, this is an informed and provocative manifesto for a
    technological century. And forteans should be pleased to learn that the
    world could get a whole lot weirder and, Mulhall promises, more personally
    satisfying.

    Tim Chapman

    Fortean Times verdict: 6

    ...over-egged provocative manifesto for the 21st century...

    -- 
    Terry W. Colvin, Sierra Vista, Arizona (USA) < fortean1@mindspring.com >
         Alternate: < fortean1@msn.com >
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