Authors@Google: Mark Stevenson March 8, 2011

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Mark Stevenson spoke to Googlers in Mountain View on February 14, 2011 about his book An Optimist's Tour of the Future: One Curious Man Sets Out to Answer "What's Next?"

About An Optimist's Tour of the Future:

"Ever heard of transhumans? Humans saved from aging through artificial spare parts. They're coming soon. So too are intelligent robots, revolutionary biotech, benign engineering and commercial space flights. Science writer and stand-up comedian Mark Stevenson has been to the future - and he says it's got a lot going for it. Mark Stevenson set out on a global journey to find the future - a few years before it impacts on the rest of us. The results are frankly encouraging. He finds he is very likely to live longer than he had expected, with a few biological tweaks. Perhaps even long enough to share the planet with a resurrected sabre-tooth tiger or dodo, or at least a super-intelligent computer, able to understand and determine to act upon his commands. He feels good about the planet, too. The energy crisis can be easily solved and CO2 can be extracted and stored away. And with nanotech and new urbanisation, we humans will find a new equilibrium - even as we start buzzing off on space holidays. So, in short, everything is going to be all right. You don't read that everyday, do you?"