Decoding the World: A Road Map for the Questioner

Biotech entrepreneurs Bronson and Gupta take a largely unrewarding look at big questions in science and tech, from how artificial intelligence will impact jobs, to how genetic engineering will reshape demographics. The disorganized format wanders from one topic to another, with little or no connection between them, as when a section on China’s role in developing new urban infrastructure ends with the authors declaring they need to “do a chapter about plants,” because people love them. Though the authors claim readers will see, over the course of the book, a “classic Hollywood role reversal” in which “Arvind learns to think slower to build bigger” and Bronson “to act faster to see further,” little such development is evident. Instead, the book is dominated by a jokey and sophomoric tone, as when one author spends pages imagining a conversation with Marvel’s Tony Stark character. Their conclusions are unsatisfying (they determine, for instance, that Americans who try to stand up for human rights in China will only harm themselves economically) and sometimes unsourced (they decide that there will not be any designer babies in the future because no parents will want them.) Readers interested in a thoughtful guide to serious questions can give this a pass. (Oct.)