A new book will probe the future of technology from a scientific — and comedic — angle, exploring what's coming next, what the future will really be like and what it will take to get that space elevator or moon colony running.
Zach and Kelly Weinersmith, the author of the online SMBC Comics and a biologist/podcaster, respectively, are aiming for an Oct. 17 release of the book, titled "Soonish: Ten Emerging Technologies That'll Improve and/or Ruin Everything" (Penguin Press, 2017).
The husband-and-wife team investigate 10 developing fields of science and technology to figure out how they'd be used and the obstacles keeping them from becoming a reality, integrating interviews with scientists, original research and — of course — silly, irreverent comics. The promotional materials suggest space-based topics, including colonization, asteroid mining, deep space exploration and the aforementioned space elevator.
Right now, potential readers can preorder the book online, where an animated space elevator is slowly climbing past different additional perks based on preorder numbers, such as a recorded podcast discussing the book, signed bookplates and a live Q&A for the people that sign up.
The authors describe the work in true webcomic form in the graphic below.
Email Sarah Lewin at slewin@space.com or follow her @SarahExplains. Follow us @Spacedotcom, Facebook and Google+. Original article on Space.com.
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