The Future of Us: The Science of What We’ll Eat, Where We’ll Live, and Who We’ll Be

The unsatisfying latest from Ingram (The Science of Why), the former host of Discovery Channel Canada’s Daily Planet, muses on how coming technological advances might influence how humans live. Unfortunately, Ingram’s commentary is largely familiar and superficial. Examining the future of aging, he repeats the common prediction that the “first 150-year-old is already alive today” and notes that “scientists are now hot on the trail of identifying the substance(s) in the blood that could be responsible for literally turning back the clock” without further discussing the research. He also comes up short in interpreting his data, as when he strings together brief anecdotes about the “well-planned public transit” in Curitiba, Brazil; the high-tech methods Chattanooga, Tenn., has implemented to ease traffic; and Seoul’s mass surveillance to make the obvious point that “enhanced technology will be ubiquitous in how cities are shaped.” Despite touching on such potentially fascinating topics as the benefits of lab-grown pet foods, advances in prosthetic limbs, and strategies for mitigating climate change, the discussions are cursory and feel rudderless in the absence of overarching analysis tying the disparate evidence together. Readers curious about the future would be better off with a Magic 8 Ball. (Oct.)