Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
One day, absolutely nothing will be impossible., 16 Aug 1999
By A Customer
Don't let the title put you off. This is a book about where the human race is heading. A lot of the ideas in this book may sound like science fiction, but they are originated by people who believe that, one day, they will all come true. This is a book about people who have taken a long hard look at reality and think they can do considerably more with it than we've managed so far. Ed Regis's long-term view of the capabilities we will possess as a species in the future is in turns frightening, breathtaking and hilarious, but always jaw-dropping. If you want to find out about scientists who are not only considering how to use technology to make people live forever, but are seriously contemplating rebuilding the solar system to give us more room and coming up with a great recipe for fried chicken in the process, then this is the book for you. And you've got to admit, it's a catchy title...
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
Comic, mind-boggling mix of hard science and extreme sci-fi, 3 April 2000
By A Customer
Mambo Chicken is not sci-fi, because there is nothing fictional about any of it. It is a truly fascinating book, and this from someone who conscientiously buys pop science books only to fall asleep and start dribbling all over page 39.Regis sets about acquainting the reader with just how bizarrely the thought processes of the world's most brilliant scientists operate, and some of the technological visions they are wont to put forward, without the slightest regard for realism or potential for success. There's the 'wrap the sun in a big insulator jacket and harness its heat' idea, space colonies, Olympics in space (which one physicist predicted as achievable for 2005), mind-downloading and countless other truly incredible visions for the distant future. Regis narrates these stories very adeptly - not least because he recognises that a certain amount of humour and gentle mockery is needed to keep the reader from thinking he has stumbled across Silicon Valley's version of Mein Kampf. Every page is thought-provoking (if only the thought 'you mad, mad people'), and if nothing else I'm looking forward to the brain-copy-on-a-floppy-disk that I am promised, as a backup every time I forget my own bank PIN number.
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(2 customer reviews)
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