''The Future of Humanity: Terraforming Mars, Interstellar Travel, Immortality, and Our Destiny Beyond Earth'' is a popular science book by the

futurist Futurists (also known as futurologists, prospectivists, foresight practitioners and horizon scanners) are people whose specialty or interest is futurology or the attempt to systematically explore predictions and possibilities abo ...

and

physicist A physicist is a scientist who specializes in the field of physics, which encompasses the interactions of matter and energy at all length and time scales in the physical universe. Physicists generally are interested in the root or ultimate cau ...

Michio Kaku Michio Kaku (, ; born January 24, 1947) is an American theoretical physicist, futurist, and popularizer of science ( science communicator). He is a professor of theoretical physics in the City College of New York and CUNY Graduate Center. Kak ...

. The book was initially published on February 20, 2018 by Doubleday. The book was on

The New York Times Best Seller list ''The New York Times'' Best Seller list is widely considered the preeminent list of best-selling books in the United States. John Bear, ''The #1 New York Times Best Seller: intriguing facts about the 484 books that have been #1 New York Times ...

for four weeks.

Background

Kaku discusses the future and survival of the human species and discusses topics such as terraforming Mars and

interstellar travel Interstellar travel is the hypothetical travel of spacecraft from one star system, solitary star, or planetary system to another. Interstellar travel is expected to prove much more difficult than interplanetary spaceflight due to the vast diffe ...

. Given that it may take centuries to reach the closest suns and exoplanets, Kaku also explores alternative paths to ensure the survival of humanity, including the possibility of genetic engineering and transferring

human consciousness Consciousness, at its simplest, is sentience and awareness of internal and external existence. However, the lack of definitions has led to millennia of analyses, explanations and debates by philosophers, theologians, linguisticians, and scien ...

into non-biological machines.

Reception

'' Kirkus Reviews'' described Kaku's views as " ways optimistic" and that "Kaku delivers a fascinating and scattershot series of scenarios in which humans overcome current obstacles without violating natural laws to travel the universe." ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...

'' praised Kaku for being "adept at drawing from the lexicon of popular science fiction" and noted that "the strength of Kaku’s writing is knowing which science fiction ideas are worth following".

References

External links

Michio Kaku's
official website
Booksite
(part of Michio Kaku's website) 2018 non-fiction books Books by Michio Kaku Popular science books Futurology books Doubleday (publisher) books {{future-book-stub