The Next 500 Years

Readers looking for science writing that sees bold possibilities in the future will be enthralled. - Publishers Weekly [This] book arrives at a fascinating moment in the history of technology, when we may, after all, be able to avert previously unavoidable catastrophes . . . Mason's book is a genuine, timely and engaging addition to a 1000-year-old Western tradition, grounded in religious expectations and a quest for transcendence and salvation. Visionaries from Isaac Newton to Joseph Priestley to space pioneer Konstantin Tsiolkovsky have all expounded on the tenets that underpin Mason's account: the apocalypse is imminent, but, by increasing human knowledge, we may recover the paradise we enjoyed before the flood . . . Mason puts a new layer of flesh on what have, so far, been some ardent but very sketchy dreams. - New Scientist In his new book, The Next 500 Years, geneticist Christopher Mason argues, 'It is no longer a question of 'if' we can engineer life-only 'how' and that 'Engineering is humanity's innate duty, needed to ensure the survival of life.' -Science What sets Mason's ideas apart . . . is that he realizes that human bodies aren't well suited for life away from Earth, what with the radiation, toxic gases and so on. His programme for expansion comes with a detailed blueprint for the genetic improvements we will need to make to ourselves to boost our resilience off-world. Mason is well placed to write such a plan. - Joshua Howgego, New Scientist Provocative - Bloomberg News Mason is serious. His new book, The Next 500 Years, maps out in detail how we'll do it. -BBC Science Focus