This book would go to describe the human society thriving beyond our planet, beginning with the concept of interplanetary near future, on to the entire universe and further beyond. Beyond refers to the highly speculative concepts of seeding new Universes when ours ultimately dies. It is the story of human development as Michio Kaku sees it.
The new planets would basically be dead stars or pulsars that have exploded in a supernova killing everything. And about 4500 of them have been discovered so far.
The first chapter deals with the brief history of rocketry, primarily mentioning Robert Goddard and how he was often ridiculed when he talked about entry into space. Only in 1969, did the New York Times offer an apology for doubting his credibility when it published an admission that rocket propulsion can indeed function in a vacuum. This chapter further covers mining the asteroids, Space Exploration society. The author mentions Newtons' vision becoming reality with the launch of Sputnik.
Some background Astronomy for the lay reader and overview of some upcoming missions to the outer solar system has been included. Kaku delves into peripheral topics of artificial intelligence, self-replicating robots, machines with self-awareness and then on to theories of consciousness along with quantum computing basics. Indeed, he suggests these will be vital components of space travel - with an exception mentioning Alan Shepherd taking Golf Stick to the Moon without the knowledge of the authorities.
A Russian scientist, Nikolai Kardashev has created a scale of civilizations: Type I uses all of the energy from the light provided by its star; Type II uses all the energy the sun produces (think fusion); Type III uses all the energy in the entire galaxy. Obviously we're not even a Type I civilization since we don't use all the sunlight the Sun provides. We're about a 0.7 civilization. Kaku boldly suggests a Type IV civilization in which the culture utilizes the energy of the entire universe. From here, he paints a picture of possible human evolution in the context of string theory, dark energy/matter and hyperspace. Ultimately, he suggests, an advanced version of humanity could escape the death of our universe by birthing a new one. (Read Parallel Universe)
The concept of using energy from the Universe gets right fantasy. There are peaks in the Polar regions where the Sun never sets and a 1000 solar panels could create a steady supply of energy, but he cautions the dangers as the Polar regions might come under 'mining'.
With a complete map of the human brain it could be possible to beam personalities at light speed to robotic avatars based on exoplanets via a network of relay stations located on “stationary” comets. A reference is made to the mirror that was left on the Moon and laser beam was used to reflect from that part to allow humans to measure the orbital radius. A few measurements and extrapolations later would allow us to calculate moon's previous orbit or the drift if any.
It is rather confusing to know that the Moon has a different composition than the Earth has, while there are theories that the Moon was an off-shot object of the Earth (Read Thea collision).
Mining the Heavens is simply superb to read. That Asteroid Bennu was explored and the possible mechanism of bringing the Noble ores to the Earth makes interesting reading. The Asteroid Redirect Mission (ARM) has a few stalwarts up its lounge to accomplish that but the time mentioned is over a century.
Ceres is the Goddess of Agriculture and thus we have Cereals.
That Jupiter is our guardian angel, deflecting most asteroids, comets and other space clutter that could kill us, is now established fact. Earth is a 'Goldilocks Planet', not too hot, not cold, with an atmosphere that's no too dense and a magnetic field and an ozone layer that deflects ultra-violet rays from frying us alive. It is expected that many Goldilocks planets are there in our galaxy. Possibly hundreds of thousands, but a lot depends on how we hear from outside world (Read SETI).
Use of Robots to accomplish 3D (Dull Dirty and Dangerous) jobs can be utilized for space exploration. The concept of space elevators is written down owing to the pressure it would create at its center leading to collapse is a nice mention. A lot more simple information make us feel that we are capable of understanding this Universe and would never be able to conquer it.
Read three months back, the time for review just got ripened!
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