NOW WHAT?

A futurist offers guidance for embracing inevitable technological change.

“The future isn’t coming,” van Rijmenam declares in the book’s opening lines; “it’s here and it feels like a tsunami.” From 3D printing and bioengineering to artificial intelligence and robotics, cutting-edge technologies are already disrupting business models, scientific understanding, and societal paradigms. A self-described futurist and popular TEDx speaker, the author urges readers to embrace these changes through his “WAVE framework” (Watch, Adapt, Verify, and Empower), outlining the steps that individual people, businesses, and organizations should take when assessing rapid change. Van Rijmenam blends memoiristic passages about his biking journey across Australia and personal interactions with tech leaders with philosophical insights that make an effective case for blending Western innovations with Eastern philosophies. Taoism, for instance, “serves as a much-needed counterbalance to the urgency and frenetic pace of modern change,” he suggests. The book also provides a comprehensive overview of new technologies like synthetic biology and quantum computing, and the author even offers readers a short fictional story that he uses as a platform for a broader commentary on developing ethical issues. Divided into three parts, the SF story, “Echoes of Tomorrow,” is set in 2051 and centers around an anthropomorphic robot named SIREN. While the story is lacking in character development and plot, it serves as an effective vehicle to explore such ethical dilemmas as giving artificial intelligence similar rights to humans. While some readers may find this story and other elements of the book gimmicky (QR codes to allow readers to share portions of the book on social media proliferate throughout each chapter, for example), the volume offers an accessible introduction to and optimistic assessment of emerging technologies, backed by almost 400 endnotes. Some readers may take issue with the author’s admitted use of AI in the book’s research, writing, and editing phases, though its usage fits with van Rijmenam’s encouragement to embrace innovations.

A well-researched commentary on emerging technologies.