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Non-Fiction Futurism |
The Starflight Handbook : A
Pioneer's Guide to Interstellar Travel
by Eugene F. Mallove, Gregory L. Matloff (Wiley Science Edition, 1989)
A modern classic. Forget science of star trek and ftl
apologists - this is the book to read if you want an understanding of
what is really involved in star travel! Easy to read, with technical
boxes for the maths boffins. Topics covered include: methods of
interstellar propulsion (various star drives covered include nuclear
pulse, beamed energy, solar sail, fusion ramjets, ion scoops, and
amat), interstellar navigation, communication systems for sending data,
relativistic effects in starflight, effects of starflight on people and
machines, hibernation and suspended animation, and effects of the
interstellar medium. Includes tables of the nearest stars, a passing
mention of wormholes (a lot more
info on that subject around now), and a closing chapter (also very
dated) on extrasolar planets.
The interstellar ramjet it seems turns out to be not be as viable as
the authors think. Otherwise, an excellent book - perhaps deserving a
second edition
The Millennial Project : Colonizing the
Galaxy in Eight Easy Steps. One of the most inspiring
books ever written, a boldly optimistic plan for the human race to
colonise the universe and spread life throughout the galaxy. What is
striking is that Savage begins with technology that is available today.
A number of Orion's Arm themes are found here - ocean and
orbital habitats, algae as a food source, terraforming Mars, asteroid
habitats, interstellar catapults, and more. While the book contains a
number of pragmatic errors (e.g. doming the lunar craters will not
work, because the rims are not solid enough to support a dome;
breathing pure oxygen at 21% atmosphere density is not viable, etc
etc), and Savage's vision of trillions of human beings inhabiting a
single solar system (somewhere referred to by a critic as "Calcutta in
the sky") is not my idea of an optimal future, these errors do not
diminish the overall value of this book.
The Spike : How Our Lives Are Being Transformed by Rapidly
Advancing Technologies. Broderick is an Australian
science fiction writer who has written a light and breezy, at times
very insightful, popular introduction to and commentary on this topic.
The Singularity, Transhumanism, nanotech, mind uploads, and a whole lot
of other weird and wonderful things that are a part of the Orion's
Arm setting, are all covered. But although the presentation is
simple, and clear enough for someone with no background knowledge to
appreciate (and indeed if you are familiar with these concepts you
would do well to skip the first few chapters), the prose is uneven. For
example, when something incredible is mentioned, Broderick will not
infrequently add some melodramatic phrase to express amazement. Also
irritating is his habit (fortunately he doesn't do it too often) of
coining misleading neologisms when a more familiar word is already in
use - e.g. "minting" for nanofabrication, and "spike" instead of
Vinge's more familiar "singularity". But for all it's faults, you could
do a lot worse than this book for a simple introduction to what the
Singularity and Transhumanism are about
Broderick has also written a follow-up, The Last Mortal Generation, although I haven't read that one. But it seems to be basically elaborating further on the same themes covered in The Spike.
Engines of Creation -
The Coming Era of Nanotechnology by K. Eric Drexler.
The classic text of nanotechnology - available on-line and for
download. See also
Unbounding
the Future: the Nanotechnology Revolution (by Eric
Drexler and Chris Peterson, with Gayle Pergamit)
The Age of Spiritual Machines : When
Computers Exceed Human Intelligence. In style and
presentation, this book is worlds away from Broderick's Spike. Yet both cover the same ground -
the Singularity, its implications, and what sort of future we are
rushing towards. Kurzweil has become a major exponent for the
Singularity and Transhumanism, and his 
web site is certainly
one of the best places you could go for all this stuff and more.
Compared to Broderick, the style of this book is rather tedious in
parts, arguing on things that I have long taken for granted (that
machines can be conscious, etc). But again, if you are a skeptic, or
coming at this subject from outside, and with a critical philosophical
eye, this is the one to go for.
Like most singularitans, Kurzweil's timeline is very rapid, assuming one or even two singularities will be breached in this century. He also follows a very optimistic path which would see a mass ascendence of human (or rather human-machine symbiotic) consciousness. This position - which Broderick and many online transhumanists also argue for (albeit with less philosophical rigour) can be termed "Optimistic Transhumanism". The utopian vision of Optimistic Transhumanism may indeed be the way the future will pan out. Then again, it is just as likely (perhaps - in view of the infinite capacity of the human race to mess things up - a whole lot more likely) that it won't. In Orion's Arm we have deliberately presented a timeline of deeply "Pessimistic Transhumanism". This assumes (quite reasonably) (a) that it will take a lot longer than a few decades to get all this ultratech on stream, and (b) the ascension will not be total or across the board, but rather only a few sentients will ascend, while most will be left at their present sapient level. But even so, many of Kurzweil's technological scenarios for an info-rich ultratech civilization are still quite valid.
The High Frontier . This book, the third edition of
O'Neill's classic proposal for the construction of Orbital Habitats,
includes, along with the original text, a series of chapters by
contemporary leaders in the aerospace industry, and provide an update
to O'Neill's work
Saucer Wisdom - I have not
read any of Rucker's other works, but Saucer
Wisdom is very relevant to the OA setting. It does make mention
of moldies, but also human and animal biomod, as well as presenting
various other sorts of aliens (i.e. shoggoths and something akin to
Hildemar's Knots) and transhuman topics. There are also some odd
relativistic phenomena and possibly nanotech covered as well. These
things are presented in a faux (faux?) autobiographical context with an
unreliable narrator. The story is less plot driven, and more of an
excuse for speculation about future and alien technological
developments. Although there are certain vague new age aspects to the
book, these are more of an excuse for exploration of technological
themes than an end in and of themselves.
Related Pages:
The Third Millennium: A History of the World AD 2000-3000
The Wisdom of Repugnance - a critique of the thesis by Leon Kass
