Book Review: Where will man take us? By Atul Jalan

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Book title: Where will man take us?
 Author: Atul Jalan
Publisher: Penguin books
Genre: Non fiction
Number of pages: 318


Recently I have been attracted to reading the sci fi- tech kind of books. I have been a lover of fiction for longer than I can remember. But it feels really refreshing to shift from the regular drama to some visual anticipation of the future.


This book traces the journey of man from the initial era ie from Homo habilis to Homo sapiens sapiens....that is what he is today. We have come a really long way. With the opposable thumb the biggest boon leading to our evolution, we have had breakthroughs in all fields in all these ages. But does that mean that we are satisfied with what we have achieved?

No. The hunger of this intelligent man will take us to an era which no one expected.


A century back, did our forefathers ever imagine that we will drive cars which are fully air-conditioned, have in-built entertainment system, have navigation? Fast forward few decades, did our parents anticipate that there would be smart gizmos? Fans and lights can be operated from a phone, Kms away, home will operate on voice command, even the smart car would listen to our voices and operate accordingly. They never imagined! So what's in the future for us, that also is a big dogma. Technology and artificial intelligence will take mankind forward by leaps and bounds.



Here are few things from the book that would raise your curiosity:
Would there be pills for happiness? Just popping them before breakfast would make our day!
Would there be someone like a 'perfect partner' ? Not only that, would the partner be needed to be charged before bed?




Got your minds boggling?
Where will man take us will actually take us to the future, where man will tackle nanotechnology, artificial intelligence, quantum computing and genetics. What baffled me the most was that what would be place for human emotions in this era of artificial intelligence? It is already on the verge of decline in this era of WhatsApp and emojis. I mean when was the last time you received a proper paper birthday greeting card? If you take too long to remember, then it's ages back! Where would love, morality and ethics go? Would they vanish or would be battery operated like everything else?
A very intelligent and technical piece of writing. Mr Jalan has done a great job. Totally recommend this.

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