I've read several of Professor Kaku's books, and there are two things I can say about all of them: (1) they are extremely well written and (2) they will expand your mind. When it comes to the genre of physics books for laypersons, Kaku is as good as it gets. Indeed, his book "Hyperspace" was one of the first books of this genre that I read many years ago, and thanks to Professor Kaku, this one-time English major has become very interested in physics.
"The Future of Humanity" is a fun book. This is one of Kaku's gifts--making science fun. Any layperson of average intelligence can (with a little determination) understand Professor Kaku's discussions of quantum physics, relativity, string theory, and related matters. In this book, Kaku covers not only the short-term future, which involves colonization of Mars, and exploration of earth-like planets in our galactic neighborhood. He also takes a look into the very distant future of humanity, when we might well have achieved immortality, and have advanced from our current Type 0 civilization into a Type 3 civilization, which has harnessed the power of galaxies, to explore the entire universe. Along the way, one learns quite a bit about quantum physics, including string theory, and also quite a bit about science fiction, which has inspired Professor Kaku's mind throughout his life. (Kaku's references to science fiction are a great deal of fun and quite interesting). I was most interested in the short-term future and how we solve our problems regarding clean and abundant energy and how we begin to colonize nearby planets. On these issues, Kaku is an optimist, and his optimism is well grounded in science. It is clear that if our species is to survive, we must eventually find ways to leave Earth and colonize Mars and earth-like planets in nearby solar systems. Even overcoming the many challenges of traveling to and eventually colonizing Mars presents daunting obstacles. Professor Kaku discusses these obstacles in great depth and suggests ways that future generations will eventually be able to overcome them. Kaku's discussion of the short-term future (through the end of this century) is quite convincing because there are already many ideas as to how humanity could terraform Mars and eventually travel to nearby earth-like planets. Professor Kaku makes a convincing case that if humanity can avoid self-destruction, we can and will be able to colonize nearby habitable planets, which is absolutely essential to our species' survival. By the end of this century we will probably have colonies on Mars and perhaps on some of the many earth-like planets that have been discovered orbiting nearby stars.
The most speculative--and most entertaining--part of this book (for me) was when Professor Kaku looks into the distant future and begins to speculate what humanity could achieve thousands of years from now. This part of the book discusses concepts such as navigating wormholes to explore the vast distances of our universe and the use of AI and robotics to greatly expand our life expectancy to the point where we could realistically hope to explore the known universe and to travel well beyond the limits of our home. This section of the book also raises a number of philosophical questions (e.g., is immortality actually desirable? how will our conception of what it means to be human change when we encounter other civilizations?, will we even recognize our species as human thousands of years from now?), and Kaku's thoughts on these matters are thought-provoking and challenging. I particularly enjoyed Kaku's discussion of Type 1, Type 2, and Type 3 civilizations. We are currently not quite Type 1; our ability to generate the energy that's necessary to travel beyond our planet and to spread humanity throughout the galaxy is still quite primitive, but we are making great progress. We will eventually become proficient at using atomic and solar power in ways that will provide the necessary clean and abundant energy that we need to venture to Mars and beyond. Kaku's discussion of what we might be thousands of years from now when we become a Type 3 species and can harness the power of entire galaxies to explore the entire universe is speculative, but a treat for the imagination--science at its best, inspiring and hopeful. Above all, I think that this is a hopeful book. If humanity can avoid self-destruction, then our future is very bright indeed. Earth will always be home, but to survive as a species we must journey from home to the ends of the universe, and we can do so. This is a very enjoyable and inspiring book by a very talented writer and scientist. Mind-blowing and entertaining.
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julian feikert
You get just what you expect.
Reviewed in Mexico on October 19, 2019