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The Five Forces That Change Everything: How Technology is Shaping Our Future
As machines become capable of doing most of the work people have performed for centuries, we are headed for a massive social reorganization.
Nanotech is at the point where it's possible to unleash invisible robots and new materials into the world that permanently alter life on Earth. With genetic engineering, we have taken evolution into our own hands, creating new species of plants and animals that never existed before. We're developing AIs that can predict future events, create lifelike simulations, and learn from their own mistakes. And space technology is advancing toward the point where visiting other planets and discovering alien life forms will no longer be the stuff of science fiction.
In The Five Forces That Change Everything, Steve Hoffman, venture capitalist and CEO of Founders Space, takes you on a journey to see what the most brilliant minds of our age are dreaming up. Hoffman reveals how new scientific breakthroughs and business ventures are poised to reshape our lives and turn science fiction into fact. From Silicon Valley biohackers boosting their IQs to scientists in Japan creating lifelike robots, and Chinese labs developing human-monkey chimeras, Hoffman gives an inside look at the limits of what's possible and the impact these developments will have.
Nanotech is at the point where it's possible to unleash invisible robots and new materials into the world that permanently alter life on Earth. With genetic engineering, we have taken evolution into our own hands, creating new species of plants and animals that never existed before. We're developing AIs that can predict future events, create lifelike simulations, and learn from their own mistakes. And space technology is advancing toward the point where visiting other planets and discovering alien life forms will no longer be the stuff of science fiction.
In The Five Forces That Change Everything, Steve Hoffman, venture capitalist and CEO of Founders Space, takes you on a journey to see what the most brilliant minds of our age are dreaming up. Hoffman reveals how new scientific breakthroughs and business ventures are poised to reshape our lives and turn science fiction into fact. From Silicon Valley biohackers boosting their IQs to scientists in Japan creating lifelike robots, and Chinese labs developing human-monkey chimeras, Hoffman gives an inside look at the limits of what's possible and the impact these developments will have.
- GenresScienceTechnology
320 pages, Kindle Edition
First published August 1, 2021
40 people are currently reading
141 people want to read
About the author
Steven Hoffman
6 books20 followersSteve Hoffman (Captain Hoff) is a serial entrepreneur, angel investor, LP in August Capital, and author of the book Make Elephants Fly: The Process of Radical Innovation. Hoffman is also the Captain & CEO of Founders Space, one of the world’s leading incubators and accelerators, with over 50 partners in 22 countries.
Always innovating on his life, Captain Hoff has tried more professions than cats have lives, including serial entrepreneur, venture capitalist, angel investor, studio head, computer engineer, filmmaker, Hollywood TV exec, published author, coder, game designer, manga rewriter, animator and voice actor.
Hoffman was the Founder and Chairman of the Producers Guild Silicon Valley Chapter, Board of Governors of the New Media Council, and founding member of the Academy of Television’s Interactive Media Group.
While in Hollywood, Hoffman worked as a TV development executive at Fries Entertainment, known for producing over a hundred TV shows (acquired by MGM). He went on to pioneer interactive television with his venture-funded startup Spiderdance, which produced interactive TV shows with NBC, MTV, Turner, Warner Brothers, History Channel, Game Show Network and others.
In Silicon Valley, Hoffman founded two more venture-backed startups in the areas of games and entertainment, and worked as Mobile Studio Head for Infospace, with such hit mobile games as Tetris, Wheel of Fortune, Tomb Raider, Thief, Hitman, Skee-Ball and X-Files.
Hoffman went on to launch Founders Space, with the mission to educate and accelerate entrepreneurs. Founders Space has become one of the top startup accelerators in the world. Hoffman has trained hundreds of startup founders and corporate executives in the art of innovation and routinely works with the world’s largest global corporations and venture funds.
Hoffman has a BS from the University of California in Computer Engineering and an MFA from the University of Southern California in Cinema Television. He currently resides in San Francisco but spends most of his time in the air, visiting startups, investors and innovators all over the world.
Always innovating on his life, Captain Hoff has tried more professions than cats have lives, including serial entrepreneur, venture capitalist, angel investor, studio head, computer engineer, filmmaker, Hollywood TV exec, published author, coder, game designer, manga rewriter, animator and voice actor.
Hoffman was the Founder and Chairman of the Producers Guild Silicon Valley Chapter, Board of Governors of the New Media Council, and founding member of the Academy of Television’s Interactive Media Group.
While in Hollywood, Hoffman worked as a TV development executive at Fries Entertainment, known for producing over a hundred TV shows (acquired by MGM). He went on to pioneer interactive television with his venture-funded startup Spiderdance, which produced interactive TV shows with NBC, MTV, Turner, Warner Brothers, History Channel, Game Show Network and others.
In Silicon Valley, Hoffman founded two more venture-backed startups in the areas of games and entertainment, and worked as Mobile Studio Head for Infospace, with such hit mobile games as Tetris, Wheel of Fortune, Tomb Raider, Thief, Hitman, Skee-Ball and X-Files.
Hoffman went on to launch Founders Space, with the mission to educate and accelerate entrepreneurs. Founders Space has become one of the top startup accelerators in the world. Hoffman has trained hundreds of startup founders and corporate executives in the art of innovation and routinely works with the world’s largest global corporations and venture funds.
Hoffman has a BS from the University of California in Computer Engineering and an MFA from the University of Southern California in Cinema Television. He currently resides in San Francisco but spends most of his time in the air, visiting startups, investors and innovators all over the world.
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Displaying 1 - 29 of 29 reviews
October 18, 2021
I reckon this is where I realize I might have become a bit of a cynical middle aged man.
This comprehensive overview of what lies ahead for society in the future is probably supposed to be hopeful and positive. Yet I dread a lot of the possible paths of innovation described in this book and found it to be quite depressing to be honest.
Sure, developments in Mass Connectivity, Bio Convergence, Human Expansionism, Deep Automation and Superintelligence, the five forces from the title will bring a lot of good to humankind. But by now I'm pretty sure it will, for a considerable while, favour mainly the rich, make the rich richer and increase inequality even more. There's that cynic in me.
Automation, AI, undoubtedly they will bring wealth and health to the world. But it will also mean less and less work for the masses. What will people do? Hoffman addresses this shortly in the book. Universal basic income seems the only solution. But how long will it take to get society organized in such a radically different manner? In the meantime, will there be suffering while a select few get unimaginably rich? I would very much fear that. We already see government playing catch-up with tech and innovation. By definition democratic institutions are ill-equiped and too slow to react to ever accelerating innovations that have and will have massive impacts on society.
Some stuff in the book is downright chilling. The suspected reliance on AI for entertainment Hoffman predicts sends shivers down my spine. AI generated art. Real time AI 'composed' music suited to my current mood. It sounds horrible. Even worse is the realization that probably at a certain point one won't be able to notice the difference anymore. (I think Spotify already has a lot of fake-ish artists, making generic music for their playlists. And already people don't really care.) Hoffman takes the stance that it doesn't matter who or what creates the art but instead the interaction with that art is what matters. I definitely think otherwise. At least for now. I don't feel AI generated art hold any value for me.
Bu anyway. Futurist thinking, it's fun to read about, even it winds you up sometimes. Hoffman's book is an interesting read for sure. It's comprehensive but also introductory.
This comprehensive overview of what lies ahead for society in the future is probably supposed to be hopeful and positive. Yet I dread a lot of the possible paths of innovation described in this book and found it to be quite depressing to be honest.
Sure, developments in Mass Connectivity, Bio Convergence, Human Expansionism, Deep Automation and Superintelligence, the five forces from the title will bring a lot of good to humankind. But by now I'm pretty sure it will, for a considerable while, favour mainly the rich, make the rich richer and increase inequality even more. There's that cynic in me.
Automation, AI, undoubtedly they will bring wealth and health to the world. But it will also mean less and less work for the masses. What will people do? Hoffman addresses this shortly in the book. Universal basic income seems the only solution. But how long will it take to get society organized in such a radically different manner? In the meantime, will there be suffering while a select few get unimaginably rich? I would very much fear that. We already see government playing catch-up with tech and innovation. By definition democratic institutions are ill-equiped and too slow to react to ever accelerating innovations that have and will have massive impacts on society.
Some stuff in the book is downright chilling. The suspected reliance on AI for entertainment Hoffman predicts sends shivers down my spine. AI generated art. Real time AI 'composed' music suited to my current mood. It sounds horrible. Even worse is the realization that probably at a certain point one won't be able to notice the difference anymore. (I think Spotify already has a lot of fake-ish artists, making generic music for their playlists. And already people don't really care.) Hoffman takes the stance that it doesn't matter who or what creates the art but instead the interaction with that art is what matters. I definitely think otherwise. At least for now. I don't feel AI generated art hold any value for me.
Bu anyway. Futurist thinking, it's fun to read about, even it winds you up sometimes. Hoffman's book is an interesting read for sure. It's comprehensive but also introductory.
August 30, 2021
From the Silicon Valley comes a glimpse into the future and it is driven by tech that we could not have imagined a short time ago. This book takes a tour through what is being developed, what is possible and what will be, and it will change the way you think about the world we live in. Fascinating and compelling.
August 29, 2021
"If future generations are to remember us more with gratitude than sorrow, we must achieve more than just the miracles of technology. We must also leave them a glimpse of the world as it was created, not just as it looked when we got through with it.” -Lyndon B. Johnson. Mr. Hoffman unveils what is and will come to be, and how it has entrenched our world and how the encroachment will change our world. And if we don't understand the 5 forces now, we soon will. Take heed, with this glimpse of is will be.
September 16, 2024
Let's separate the book from the subject. Is it a thought-provoking subject? Yes, it is. Is it a thought-provoking book? Not so much, there are too many bold statements and false assumptions.
Here are some of my thoughts about the book and the subject.
• All people he interviewed for the book are geniuses who were repairing computers at ages 4, and 10 and finished their PhD. Come on!!! Also, the figures that he named to justify why AI and Automation should replace humans are really out world, is so exaggerated
§ This is an example "The World Resources Institute estimates we will need to double food production by 2050 to feed nearly ten billion people."---> Today we're 8 Bi, why with 2 Bi more food production need to be double, what we all become gross fat, pig-like Americans?
§ Hyperdimensional computing theory ---> What the heck is that? Is just math in the hyperdimensional that you learn in the first course of algebra at the University.
• Why can't you escape the consumerism, mercantilist model? Because we were educated in a model in which, as students, we were passed from one teacher to another, as if we were products on an assembly line. Not allowing lateral thinking or a critical look at the system, is why today we have many politicians like Trump, Le Pen, Bolsonaro, or Niley, and few like Alfredo Palacios or FDR.
• The education we have received and that persists today is Taylorism brought to the classroom. In this disruptive 21st century, it is useless. Just as it was useless in the previous 100 years in creating the ecosystem in which we live and which, in light of everything that is happening, has failed. Because it brought temporary material well-being at the cost of alienated societies with no other goal than immediate profit, contempt for others, and the destruction of the environment.
• It seems the ultimate goal of promoting AI is to reduce labor costs. This focus is not about improving people's lives; rather, it aims to lower expenses across various sectors—reducing manufacturing costs through automation, artist costs with AI in music, film, sculpture, and painting, financial intermediation costs via fintech, and distribution and marketing costs through platforms like Amazon and AliExpress. Additionally, services like Uber transform transportation for both people and goods.
In this pursuit, we risk sidelining families and small to medium enterprises (SMEs), that can't afford the new technologies development costs while destroying the environment and denying climate change. Increasing disregard for others as the mercantilist notion that everything is tradable becomes deified.
While reducing costs aligns with capitalism's inherent goals, we must ask: For whom are these savings intended? If more people are excluded from the market, who will buy these products? Proposals for universal basic income may seem like a solution, but they could become another form of economic control, limiting true personal freedoms—not the market freedoms touted by libertarians.
To support the paradox, the image, the writing, and the correction of the text were done using AI. Isn't it strange? What is our position in the future society? Think creatively, AI has not yet surpassed us in that aspect. Innovation should continue, but we must reflect on its purpose. Neither hedonism nor nihilism offers the answers we need.
• It seems that humanity always needs a "god"... now it is thought that Artificial Intelligence is a new "god" that will save it from its calamities. We will only survive by our capabilities. NOT any "god".
We wrote the Declaration of the Rights of Man and the Citizen and the Universal Declaration of the Rights of the Child, and during the French Revolution, the principles of equality, liberty, and fraternity were declared. The independence of the USA was achieved in 1776. However, slavery persisted, French colonization in Africa continued, and true equality remained elusive. The issue lies not in our declarations but in the implementation of those ideals. Important documents such as the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948), the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (1966), the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (1966), the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (1979), the Convention on the Rights of the Child (1989), and the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (2006) highlight the ongoing struggle for human dignity and equality. Neither AI nor humanity can achieve this if there is a lack of genuine intent.
•
Finally, about consciousness, we still debating what it is and really if it exists and he wants to upload it to a server? Come on!!!. His suggestion that by connecting our brains directly to the Internet we would become a hive is impossible for several reasons. First, technical, there is no technology, not even fMRI, that allows this no matter how much I have proposed it. Second, we do not know, and we are still arguing, what consciousness is, and many doubt its existence. Third and most important, in this era of the ultra-right where individualism wins over collectivism, where everything is commercialized, it is impossible to want to give in to hive-type control.
Here are some of my thoughts about the book and the subject.
• All people he interviewed for the book are geniuses who were repairing computers at ages 4, and 10 and finished their PhD. Come on!!! Also, the figures that he named to justify why AI and Automation should replace humans are really out world, is so exaggerated
§ This is an example "The World Resources Institute estimates we will need to double food production by 2050 to feed nearly ten billion people."---> Today we're 8 Bi, why with 2 Bi more food production need to be double, what we all become gross fat, pig-like Americans?
§ Hyperdimensional computing theory ---> What the heck is that? Is just math in the hyperdimensional that you learn in the first course of algebra at the University.
• Why can't you escape the consumerism, mercantilist model? Because we were educated in a model in which, as students, we were passed from one teacher to another, as if we were products on an assembly line. Not allowing lateral thinking or a critical look at the system, is why today we have many politicians like Trump, Le Pen, Bolsonaro, or Niley, and few like Alfredo Palacios or FDR.
• The education we have received and that persists today is Taylorism brought to the classroom. In this disruptive 21st century, it is useless. Just as it was useless in the previous 100 years in creating the ecosystem in which we live and which, in light of everything that is happening, has failed. Because it brought temporary material well-being at the cost of alienated societies with no other goal than immediate profit, contempt for others, and the destruction of the environment.
• It seems the ultimate goal of promoting AI is to reduce labor costs. This focus is not about improving people's lives; rather, it aims to lower expenses across various sectors—reducing manufacturing costs through automation, artist costs with AI in music, film, sculpture, and painting, financial intermediation costs via fintech, and distribution and marketing costs through platforms like Amazon and AliExpress. Additionally, services like Uber transform transportation for both people and goods.
In this pursuit, we risk sidelining families and small to medium enterprises (SMEs), that can't afford the new technologies development costs while destroying the environment and denying climate change. Increasing disregard for others as the mercantilist notion that everything is tradable becomes deified.
While reducing costs aligns with capitalism's inherent goals, we must ask: For whom are these savings intended? If more people are excluded from the market, who will buy these products? Proposals for universal basic income may seem like a solution, but they could become another form of economic control, limiting true personal freedoms—not the market freedoms touted by libertarians.
To support the paradox, the image, the writing, and the correction of the text were done using AI. Isn't it strange? What is our position in the future society? Think creatively, AI has not yet surpassed us in that aspect. Innovation should continue, but we must reflect on its purpose. Neither hedonism nor nihilism offers the answers we need.
• It seems that humanity always needs a "god"... now it is thought that Artificial Intelligence is a new "god" that will save it from its calamities. We will only survive by our capabilities. NOT any "god".
We wrote the Declaration of the Rights of Man and the Citizen and the Universal Declaration of the Rights of the Child, and during the French Revolution, the principles of equality, liberty, and fraternity were declared. The independence of the USA was achieved in 1776. However, slavery persisted, French colonization in Africa continued, and true equality remained elusive. The issue lies not in our declarations but in the implementation of those ideals. Important documents such as the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948), the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (1966), the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (1966), the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (1979), the Convention on the Rights of the Child (1989), and the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (2006) highlight the ongoing struggle for human dignity and equality. Neither AI nor humanity can achieve this if there is a lack of genuine intent.
•
Finally, about consciousness, we still debating what it is and really if it exists and he wants to upload it to a server? Come on!!!. His suggestion that by connecting our brains directly to the Internet we would become a hive is impossible for several reasons. First, technical, there is no technology, not even fMRI, that allows this no matter how much I have proposed it. Second, we do not know, and we are still arguing, what consciousness is, and many doubt its existence. Third and most important, in this era of the ultra-right where individualism wins over collectivism, where everything is commercialized, it is impossible to want to give in to hive-type control.
December 4, 2022
If you don't read scientific articles, this book seems to be suitable for those who want to know where the world is going and how to develop rapidly. Because it's like bundling all kinds of scientific articles to read and input the author's opinions (interestingly, some are, huh?).
Five technologies will change everything : artificial intelligence, robot, quantum, neuroscience and combinations of these (Intelligence explosion). Some are too good to be true, some are too terrible, but they seem to be true. (e.g. the ai is actually a communist etc. I'm write it not the book)
so,Finally. This is a bit of a sci-fi but based on reality and helps to look at the future more broadly.
-
ถ้าไม่ได้อ่านบทความเทคฯ อยู่แล้ว เล่มนี้ก็ดูจะเหมาะสำหรับคนที่ต้องการอยากรู้ว่าโลกไปถึงไหนแล้ว จะไปยังไงแบบไวๆ เพราะเหมือนมัดรวมบทความเทคฯ ต่างๆ มาให้อ่าน และใส่ความคิดเห็นของผู้เขียน (ที่น่าสนใจ และบางอันก็ หรอวะ) โดยเทคโนโลยีห้าอย่างที่จะมาเปลี่ยนแปลง ถ้าพูดรวมๆ คือ ai, หุ่นยนต์(แบบcybrog), ควอนตัม, สมอง(neuroscience) และ การผสมผสานทั้งสี่อย่างเข้าด้วยกัน (intelligence explosion) บางอันก็ดูดีเกินไปที่จะเป็นความจริง บางอันก็น่ากลัวเกินไปแต่ดูเหมือนจะเป็นจริง (เช่น ai จริงๆแล้วเป็นคอมมิวนิสต์เป็นต้น หยอกๆ ในเล่มไม่ได้บอกงี้หรอก)
รวมๆ แล้วเป็นเล่มที่ดูแฟนซีนิดๆ แต่อยู่บนพื้นฐานของความเป็นจริงและช่วยให้มองภาพในอนาคตที่ค่อนข้างไกลได้กว้างขึ้นค่ะ
Five technologies will change everything : artificial intelligence, robot, quantum, neuroscience and combinations of these (Intelligence explosion). Some are too good to be true, some are too terrible, but they seem to be true. (e.g. the ai is actually a communist etc. I'm write it not the book)
so,Finally. This is a bit of a sci-fi but based on reality and helps to look at the future more broadly.
-
ถ้าไม่ได้อ่านบทความเทคฯ อยู่แล้ว เล่มนี้ก็ดูจะเหมาะสำหรับคนที่ต้องการอยากรู้ว่าโลกไปถึงไหนแล้ว จะไปยังไงแบบไวๆ เพราะเหมือนมัดรวมบทความเทคฯ ต่างๆ มาให้อ่าน และใส่ความคิดเห็นของผู้เขียน (ที่น่าสนใจ และบางอันก็ หรอวะ) โดยเทคโนโลยีห้าอย่างที่จะมาเปลี่ยนแปลง ถ้าพูดรวมๆ คือ ai, หุ่นยนต์(แบบcybrog), ควอนตัม, สมอง(neuroscience) และ การผสมผสานทั้งสี่อย่างเข้าด้วยกัน (intelligence explosion) บางอันก็ดูดีเกินไปที่จะเป็นความจริง บางอันก็น่ากลัวเกินไปแต่ดูเหมือนจะเป็นจริง (เช่น ai จริงๆแล้วเป็นคอมมิวนิสต์เป็นต้น หยอกๆ ในเล่มไม่ได้บอกงี้หรอก)
รวมๆ แล้วเป็นเล่มที่ดูแฟนซีนิดๆ แต่อยู่บนพื้นฐานของความเป็นจริงและช่วยให้มองภาพในอนาคตที่ค่อนข้างไกลได้กว้างขึ้นค่ะ
October 25, 2024
This is a good overview of the recent progress in a wide variety of technological innovations that may impact how we live in the near future. It is well referenced such that a reader can explore more deeply in areas that particularly interests them, however this also means it is lacking in depth. The individual areas of innovation often get just a paragraph of discussion, with links to current work, and then the book moves on to a related topic. One misgiving I have about the book is that since it is heavily invested in explaining current trends it may soon be out of date. The second is that the vignettes touch on so many potential changes, some of which are likely mutually exclusive, that it is hard to get a big picture of what the future might look like. It would have been nice to get Mr. Hoffman's perspective of how all these forces might shape the future wholistically, but I suppose that might be like asking the Oracle a question. I still gave the book 4 stars because it brings a very wide range of ideas into one place.
February 8, 2023
I'm torn between 4 and 5 stars because it's hard for me to give the best rating to a book that I did not take notes from AND that was so hard to read (5 days is an eternity for me, usually I eat books in 1-2 days). BUT. It IS a great book to show were we are going in the next 5 years. It talks about every different dimension of synthetics (AI, food, human upgrades, materials) that is already been researched and this all will be brought to the market in a few years. AND the book gives a great estimation about hybrid "soldiers" when a country with dictatorship starts to "upgrade" it's people - a lot more physical and mental power, combined with subconscious digital messages to live and die in the name of the dictator and his personal wishes. This WILL happen. So guys, enjoy one of the last years of ... the World as You know it. It will pass ;)
September 2, 2021
Futurist thinking is my jam, and Steve Hoffman sees all the possibilities for the next generations as the speed of innovation keeps increasing, increasing, increasing. It's not a stretch to realize we're living in a world today that only the science fiction of not the 50s, but even the 90s could have imagined. But we must also be very careful to consider the costs of these leaps, and Steve helps us see around the corner. A must read, and buy the physical book so you can share it!
October 16, 2022
This is a quick tour of some of the latest cutting-edge research and development around the world. It's pretty high-level, just a step beyond reading headlines to keep up with the field. The five "forces" remind me of the old Timothy Leary SMI^2LE acronym, plus two. The author had a good idea but please, next time I'd .like more depth with the subjects.
August 29, 2021
Steve Hoffman is one of those unrelenting forces of good in the world. I've learned so much about leadership from him over the past years... things that I didn't get all at once but that slowly seeped in. Read what he has to say. I promise you won't regret it.
September 20, 2021
Highly insightful and informative book which inspired a lot of creative thinking for me. I would recommend this book to anyone who is interested in what technology could bring to our society and how it could affect us.
June 19, 2022
For those who are curious about the future of AI & robotics, definitely interesting reading. Many pointings to startups around the world working with different challenges in different areas.
Sometime a bit wordy & imaginary, but otherwise ok reading.
Sometime a bit wordy & imaginary, but otherwise ok reading.
November 29, 2022
This book was extremely insightful and informative, and it sparked a lot of creative thinking in me. I would recommend this book to anyone who is curious about what technology might bring to our society and how it might affect us.
August 13, 2021
This was a really great read. Definitely a book I would recommend!
August 22, 2021
I enjoy books of this genre. It is a light read but a good glimpse at where things are headed. It was a bit pessimistic but easy and quick to read.
August 29, 2021
Simply loved it. I highly recommend this book to all the founders out there.
August 29, 2021
Highly recommended. The author has a communications style that's engaging and informative. His knowledge is compelling. Highly recommended!
August 29, 2021
I have read all of Steve Hoffmans books and keep leaving new things each times. His books are the type you read a chapter and then sit and think about it for the rest of the day...great stuff.
August 29, 2021
A fascinating and insightful book. Well worth reading!
September 2, 2021
Powerful, insightful and at the cutting edge of where new developments are taking place in today's world. Highly recommend it to anyone, especially entrepreneurs.
September 6, 2021
Amazing insights into the future. I'm normally skeptical of analyses like this, but the points made, as well as the writing style, are quite illuminating. Good read, for sure.
September 7, 2021
Scary, exciting, visionary. Definitely a must-read for people seeking to understand how Technology can shape the future of our civilization.
September 16, 2021
What more can I say? 5 stars without a doubt. Steven Hoffman earned himself a reader for life.
February 10, 2022
Insightful and offers a broad view
May 11, 2022
Was hoping for more than just a laundry list of condensed hype.
July 11, 2023
i had to read this for school and it made me want to quit
July 14, 2023
A good survey of Human Spatial Expansionism, AI, Nanotechnology, Synthetic Biology, Supersentience.
January 27, 2024
A nice book on where the future technology is going. Many concrete examples with experts in the field. I found this book worth reading.
July 25, 2025
Written by serial entrepreneur and angel investor Steven Hoffman, this might as well have been titled "Build the Torment Vortex." This is a classic manifesto, written in the style of an interminable Popular Science magazine article, for the TESCREAL ideology: “transhumanism, extropianism, singularitarianism, cosmism, rationalism, effective altruism and longtermism”... a theological program pushed by California tech bros. If you watch Black Mirror and think "I'd love to live in that world!" you'll love this book. For the rest of us, it's a blueprint for a waking nightmare. No doubt, many of the technologies he describes will be manifested, but where most people would see them as a horror, he can't wait for them to come.
Displaying 1 - 29 of 29 reviews