 | As the Future Catches You: How Genomics & Other Forces Are Changing Your Life, Work, Health & Wealth rating:  asin: 0609609033 binding: Hardcover list price: $24.95 USD amazon price: $24.95 |
When I first received this book and flipped through it, I was seriously tempted to send it back unread. The typesetting is... creative to say the least - lots of white space, multiple fonts, scattershot graphics. Indeed,it looks like you've received an extra long email from someone who's just discovered how to play with all the format settings. Given that I'd purchased a hard cover book at hard cover prices, I felt ripped off.
However, I decided to read it anyway, and I'm glad I did. It's a short read, but a wild ride, and it's packed with information about the biotech and economic revolution we're just getting into. There are lots of facts and figures to consider, and the author does an excellent job of providing thought-provoking analogies that may change the way you look at some things.
In one example, he asks you to think of mosquitoes as flying hypodermic needles - right now these insects infect people with things like malaria, but scientists are trying to figure out how to use them to inoculate people instead.
This book would make an excellent Christmas gift for non-technical people who want to try to understand the potential impact of biotechnology, genetic
engineering, computers, and the Internet. The choice of typesetting, it turns out, is deliberate: it's designed to convey the speed at which these changes are taking place, and it makes reading the book as easy as consuming a sound byte from the 11 o'clock news. It can get a bit heavy on the hype factor, but the author acknowledges this at the end.
It should also be required reading for all the politicians, bureaucrats and other politicos involved in making decisions about things like cloning, genetically modified foods etc. These people in particular have to be able to see past the immediate 'ick factor' reaction and to the long term economic consequences of the legislation they propose.
In short, its an excellent primer on the biotech revolution, and a great starting point for anyone seeking to understand what's happening. And even those who are used to, as I am, reading more technical material on this topic, it provides a good summary of what's happened to date, how
technologies have converged, and what we might expect in the next decade.
