Year Million: Science at the Far Edge of Knowledge

Publishers Weekly

The human race has come a long way in the 1.5 million years since Homo erectus rose up and walked on two feet. What will humans look like in another million years (if we're still around)? Where will we live and what will we be doing? In this collection, Broderick, an Australian writer and science fiction editor, and a dozen-plus contributors let their imaginations run wild. At times they sound like a bunch of dudes tossing around what if's, but they've come up with truly funky ideas. The concept of a "Matrioshka brain" crops up more than once-a gigantic system of solar-orbiting structures to trap the sun's energy. Other authors stay more down to earth. Dougal Dixon speculates on continental drift and changes in the Earth's magnetic field. Steven Harris discusses why deuterium may take the place of oil and gas as our primary energy source in a few millennia. Several chapters read more like science fiction than sound scientific speculation, and a few wander off topic, but it's all great fun. (May)