Transition Point: From Steam to the Singularity

An excellent book full of thought-provoking scenarios on where we are headed as humankind. It is an important read for all those feeling that we are now at a point where our future will be influenced by the technology that we are developing today. So the consequences of how we are handling the technological transition now is extremely important for the future of our children

This is a fantastic book. Really well researched, well structured and makes sense of an enormous number of apparently contrasting or contradictory events. And it's not guesswork. The author cites dozens of real life examples of some of the future changes that are already happening. It's fascinating. It has left me with a similar energised feeling about my understanding of the world and how I could be affected by it in the future as I was by Charles Handy's "The Empty Raincoat" in the 1980s - and that book enabled me to radically adjust (for the better) the way I ran my life to get the most out of the forthcoming technological disruption. I fully believe that I will be able to use Transition Point to provide me with pointers on how to ride the wave over the next 25 years too. I bought, read and thoroughly enjoyed the e-book. It took a while because there's so much to the story and it introduced a whole new set of ideas and opinions that I wanted to reconcile and understand before moving on. There is so much detail and such strong sweeps of narrative that I also bought the paperback so I can refer to it and flick back and forth between ideas that spread across decades and even centuries. A brilliant book for stimulating your mind and opening a window on how the future may look. I highly recommend it.

When I picked this up I thought it was going to be purely a book about technology, but it turned out to be far more than that. Transition Point explores how technology will impact on and change society. Using a largely evidence based approach it demonstrates how these changes are already underway and draws fascinating conclusions as to where they may end up. Historical and current context is cleverly used to give the conclusions real validity. Overall a stimulating and engaging read that is well worth the investment.

This is a serious piece of work! Took me a while to understand where it was going, but by the end of this really impressive book, you realise that you've just read something that is both timely and important. It may be a big book, but its easy-to-read style means it isn't a difficult one. The main challenge is that the author covers so much ground - history, politics, societal change, culture, economics, business - it's all in there - and it's all good! This is not some random collection of thoughts; it's a joined-up and cohesive story that describes the historical and theoretical foundations of technological progress in the first part, the extent of the current wave of change in part two, and its implications in the third and largest part of the book. It is the third part where things get really interesting. The author describes the implications of a world of AI, robotics and genetic engineering, explaining everything from the threat of technological unemployment to the rise of digital authoritarianism. The last chapters on society and where we are going are both breathtaking and scary, and close the loop on the points made in the first part where Culey describes the close relationship[ between society, individual freedoms and progress. If you're like me, then at the end of the book you'll immediate go back and review early chapters again but with new eyes now that you know where it's going. I was initially frustrated and confused by the time spent on the historical chapters and wished he'd skipped that part, but by the end you fully understand whey they were there and whey they were necessary. Possibly the most comprehensive and captivating non-fiction book I've ever read; left me breathless at times. Deserves to be widely read and debated. It'll be a travesty if it isn't.