The Next Fifty Years

John Brockman, ed. Weidenfeld and Nicholson 2002 Hb, 301pp, £12.99, ISBN 9780297829256 A bit late with this one but it is well worth the mention. Brockman, founder of a literary and software agency and publisher of Edge, the online forum for scientists, presents an anthology of short essays by 25 leading specialists in the major sciences. The eponymous topic divided the book into two sections, dealing with theoretical and practical aspects of the future. A brief tour of the first topics includes ‘What is life?’ ‘Can minds be swapped?’ ‘Moral development?’ ‘What children can teach scientists’ and ‘Can science understand sadness?’. The second part includes ‘How genesis might work on other planets’, ‘Merging flesh and machine’, ‘Will we get smarter?’, ‘Rethinking the mind-brain problem’, ‘Understanding matter and complexity’, ‘Interactive clothing’, ‘The changing nature of humanity’, and a cracking piece by Richard Dawkins on ways of measuring scientific and other advancements. Brockman was inspired by a 1951 Reith lecture by the biologist J Z Young, who said: “We are going through a rapidly accelerating epistemological sea change and using unprecedentedly powerful tools. What we have lacked is an intellectual culture able to transform its own premises as fast as our technologies are transforming us.” The contributors attempt to sketch out what that culture might be from their own specialities. Good thoughtful science writing.