17 May 2007

The 'Next' new world

By Jim Pinto

Many of us continue to think of time as progressing linearly. Yet, Ray Kurzweil and others suggest accelerating technology will bring advances in the next 10 years equivalent to 100, perhaps even 1,000 years.

We're approaching the time when human sperm and eggs can be sold online, when our unborn babies can undergo tests for genetic maladies. Most of us are not prepared.

Michael Crichton started life as a medical student (graduate of Harvard Medical School) and went on to write the SciFi classic The Andromeda Strain. His Jurassic Park made another hit movie. He mixes science with the edge of reality to make his stories almost believable.

With each novel, Crichton takes what subject matter he is interested in at the moment, researches it thoroughly, and then turns it into a good story that's part techno-thriller and part cautionary tale. He has covered quite a few topics over the years with animal behavior (Congo and The Lost World), quantum physics (Timeline), the perils of Nanotechnology (Prey), Japanese-American relations (Rising Sun), sexual harassment (Disclosure), a controversial view of global warming (State of Fear).
Crichton’s latest book Next, weaves genetic engineering into an incredible and almost believable story. Published in November 2006, this book is the Crichton blend of fact and fiction in a story set in the near future. New twists and possibilities come alive with startling realism: a parrot that thinks acts like a tape-recorder to blackmail its owner and unmask villains; a wild orangutan that swears in Dutch; a chimpanzee with a mix of human DNA is adopted and goes to school as a human child.
Next describes a new world where nothing is what it seems, and a set of new possibilities opens at every turn. The book challenges our sense of reality and notions of morality. Balancing the comic and bizarre with the genuinely frightening and disturbing, this all-too-realistic thriller shatters our assumptions, and reveals shocking new choices where least expected.

Here’s a glimpse into the not-too-distant future. This book challenges our sense of reality and morality, mixing funny with frightening, sensitive with shocking. Clever, believable and scary. The future is closer than you think.

Related links:

ABC News Excerpt: Excerpt: Michael Crichton's Next:
http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/Books/story?id=2682423&page=1

Review & buy Next at Amazon.com
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0060872985/jimpintocom/103-0805027-7623017

Behind the byline
Jim Pinto is an industry analyst and founder of Action Instruments. You can e-mail him at jim@jimpinto.com or view his writings at www.JimPinto.com. Read the Table of Contents of his book, Pinto’s Points at www.jimpinto.com/writings/points.html.