Synopses & Reviews
It's the twenty-first century and let's be honest--things are a little disappointing. Despite every World's Fair prediction, every futuristic ride at Disneyland, and the advertisements on the last page of every comic book, we are not living the future we were promised. By now, life was supposed to be a fully automated, atomic-powered, germ-free Utopia, a place where a grown man could wear a velvet spandex unitard and not be laughed at. Where are the ray guns, the flying cars, and the hoverboards that we expected? What happened to our promised moon colonies? Our servant robots?
In Where's My Jetpack?, roboticist Daniel H. Wilson takes a hilarious look at the future we always imagined for ourselves. He exposes technology, spotlights existing prototypes, and reveals drawing-board plans. You will learn which technologies are already available, who made them, and where to find them. If the technology is not public, you will learn how to build, buy, or steal it. And if doesn't yet exist, you will learn what stands in the way of making it real. With thirty entries spanning everything from teleportation to self-contained skyscraper cities, and superbly illustrated by Richard Horne (101 Things to Do Before You Die), Where's My Jetpack? is an endlessly entertaining, one-of-a-kind look at the world that we always wanted.
Review
"Wilson's tone is humorous, yet he does justice to the science underlying his topic with quick, clear, sound explanations..." Seattle Times
Review
"[A]n amusing look at technological innovations that haven't quite come to be...Where's My Jetpack?...is surprisingly informative." Oregonian
Synopsis
Roboticist Wilson takes a hilarious look at the future imagined through movies, television, and comic books. He reveals which technologies are already available and those that do not yet exist explaining what stands in the way of making them real.
Synopsis
It's the twenty-first century and let's be honest things are a little disappointing. Despite every World's Fair prediction, every futuristic ride at Disneyland, and the advertisements on the last page of every comic book, we are not living the future we were promised. By now, life was supposed to be a fully automated, atomic-powered, germ-free Utopia, a place where a grown man could wear a velvet spandex unitard and not be laughed at. Where are the ray guns, the flying cars, and the hoverboards that we expected? What happened to our promised moon colonies? Our servant robots?
In Where's My Jetpack?, roboticist Daniel H. Wilson takes a hilarious look at the future we always imagined for ourselves. He exposes technology, spotlights existing prototypes, and reveals drawing-board plans. You will learn which technologies are already available, who made them, and where to find them. If the technology is not public, you will learn how to build, buy, or steal it. And if doesn't yet exist, you will learn what stands in the way of making it real. With thirty entries spanning everything from teleportation to self-contained skyscraper cities, and superbly illustrated by Richard Horne (101 Things to Do Before You Die), Where's My Jetpack? is an endlessly entertaining, one-of-a-kind look at the world that we always wanted.
About the Author
Daniel H. Wilson, Ph.D, has a degree in Robotics from Carnegie-Mellon. He is the author of
How to Survive a Robot Uprising. He lives in Portland, Oregon.
Richard Horne is a designer of books, album covers, magazines, and greeting cards, and the author of the bestselling "101 Things to Do Before You Die." Before he is old and boring he would like to walk in dinosaur footprints in Utah." "He lives in London, England.