Controlling the Future Book Review

In-Depth Reviews by Subject-Matter Experts

Read these insightful reviews to learn more about the ISA book, Controlling the Future–Controlling Nonindustrial Processes: Preventing Climate and Other Disasters, by Béla Lipták

Reveiwer: Gregory K. McMillan, ISA Fellow and founder, and co-leader of the ISA Mentor Program for industry practitioners

I think this is a monumental work that hopefully opens people's minds as to how what we have learned and accomplished in process control can be used to solve worldwide problems for a much better future.

The severity of the problems is accelerating, and the need for aggressive process control is eminent because we are approaching a tipping point where the ability to return to a safer world is threatened.

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​Reviewer: George Buckbee, P.E., President, Sage Feedback LLC, ISA Fellow

In his groundbreaking book, Bela Liptak leverages his world-class expertise in dynamics and process control to ingeniously re-calibrate our approach to government policies. With visionary insights, he paves the way toward a sustainable future, offering actionable solutions to combat global warming, and confront pressing crises. This book is a must-read for anyone seeking to make a real difference."

"We are all fortunate that Bela Liptak's passion is to apply engineering solutions to make a better world."

"I am thrilled to order copies of this book for my adult children. With Bela's unparalleled knowledge and dedication, he is not only providing solutions for the world's problems, but also inspiring the next generation to become informed, think critically, and act responsibly."

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Reviewer: Prakash Jayprakash Bapat, Director, ISA Automatic Controls and Robotics Division

“Readers may find this book beyond their expectations!” That’s my view. Controlling the Future alerts the conscious reader to the magnitude of global warming (GW), occurrences of disasters due to climate change (CC), the need for timely action of deployment of technologies such as carbon capture, utilization, and storage (CCUS), prioritising rapid transition from fossil fuel-based energy to hydrogen-based green energy and requirement to focus on R&D and subsequent deployment of developing currently unavailable technologies like reversible fuel cells (RFC), etc.

The book adds valuable information, a variety of relevant data sets, and even the cost of remedial measures. The reader is warned through striking comparisons of GW, like the heat generation of five Hiroshima atomic bombs per second and the added weight of five Empire State Buildings per hour, to bring the harsh reality to the table.

Industrialization from 1880 to date, we cared more for energy, material, and heat balance but altogether missed ecological balance. That led to increased gigaton carbon (GTC) from 600 GTC (year 1880) to 880 GTC by the (year 2020).

This book presents mainly seven streams: AI, CC, GW, APC, RE, RFC, and, above all, the concluding chapter triggers the “thought process.”

The central theme is focused on artificial intelligence (AI) and climate change (CC)—both exhibit trends of runaway reactions in their own way.

Disaster has already started not just by way of a surge in carbon emission but by alarming levels of global warming (GW). We are late in realizing this fact. However, it is still not too late, as the author shows rational and pragmatic optimism both in terms of technology and finance. The author’s confidence is expressed in this form: “We, the humans, have created this. We can fix things.”

A deeper understanding of CC by controlling this nonindustrial process, viz climate, is absolutely unique! Rarely do we see such a systematic effort in analysing the process of CC through primary, secondary, and tertiary variables, frailty manipulated variables, and the dynamics of the vast volume of the earth added to the complexity of dead time and consequent tipping points.

AI has been churned with ample pros and cons. The threat of AI is compared with the dangers of cybersecurity breaches already faced by the real world. The pros of AI in developing a better understanding of CC is crucial. The con of AI—likely to be allowed to become a tool for cultural devolution—is a brave eye-opener that may remind readers of Brave New World, a 1932 book by Aldous Huxley.

The first chapter, aptly named “Controlling the AI,” explains the central thought: “AI can help protect the moral and cultural environment. A carbon-free energy economy can protect the physical environment”.

The dangers of CC are visible: having faced wildfires, droughts, flooding, heat waves, and destruction of rainforests on land and ocean. The realization of the whole range of APCs (advance process controls) with the advancement of a set of technologies under I-4.0 in general and AI in particular, practised over a decade, can face tough testing times to bring CC under control. However, it can also be useful to determine how much time we have to make the required corrections in the CC nonindustrial processes.

RE (renewable energy), especially green energy, is duly emphasized. Capex for almost all sources of RE—wind, solar, and hydro energy—are compared with fossil fuel, and nuclear energy is discouraged with scientific reasoning. A huge cohesive effort in achieving Net Zero energy and emission is highlighted. Reversible fuel cells don’t really exist today! However, the concept and need for development to full-scale technology development and deployment are well explained. It again rightly refers to hydrogen-based green energy.  

Climate and AI are, as such, two different disciplines. However, experts in both fields researching and complementing each other’s expertise can go a long way to arrive at a timely, workable solution.

The valuable contents of the book may prove to be useful throughout the entire timeline of achieving Net Zero in both the streams—the energy and the emission.