As the Future Catches You: How Genomics & Other Forces Are Changing Your Life, Work, Health & Wealth

by Juan Enríquez

If you think the world has changed dramatically in the last five years, you haven’t seen anything yet.

You will never look at the world in the same way after reading As the Future Catches You . Juan Enriquez puts you face to face with unprecedented political, ethical, economic, and financial issues, dramatically demonstrating the cascading impact of the genetic, digital, and knowledge revolutions on all our lives.

Genetics will be the dominant language of this century. Those who can “speak it” will acquire direct and deliberate control over all forms of life. But most countries and individuals remain illiterate in what is rapidly becoming the greatest single driver of the global economy. The choice is Either learn to surf new and powerful waves of change—or get crushed trying to stop them. The future is catching us all. Let it catch you with your eyes wide open.

Genres: Science, Nonfiction, Technology, Futurism, Economics, Biology, Genetics

259 pages, Paperback

First published November 6, 2001

About the author

Juan Enríquez Cabot is a Mexican-American academic, businessman, speaker and best selling author.

Reviews

[Ipshita · Rating 3 out of 5]

I had high expectations of this book after hearing the author at a conference, I felt it was basic and dated.

The positives lie in its innovative format with a virtual debate with the reader. The intriguing format also allowed for an improved focussed reading experience.

I found the scientific updates and global economics to be quite dated. The publishers and author need to work on getting a lot of the debates updated esp on the rise of education in Africa, China and India and tech economy growth. The author seems to know a fair bit on Latin America politics, but has limited understanding of history, technology development and economic growth in other parts of the world.

[Oat]

เทคโนโลยีไม่มีเมตตา เทคโนโลยีไม่ขอร้อง " คลื่นของเทคโนโลยีมาจากกระแสความรู้ที่ไม่เข้าใครออกใคร ใครได้เทคโนโลยี คนนั้นก็มีโอกาสชนะ ใครที่ไม่มีเทคโนโลยีก็ไม่มีโอกาส

Mixing Apples, Orange and Floppy Disks
Digital Code ซึ่งประกอบไปด้วย Code 0-1-0-1 … แต่สามารถสร้างสรรข้อมูล ข่าวสาร และสิ่งต่างๆ บนโลกนี้ได้มากมาย ไม่ว่าจะเป็นรถยนต์, Computer, TV, Music และทำให้ประเทศเล็กๆ เช่น ไต้หวัน, ฟินแลนด์, สิงคโปร์ ร่ำรวยอย่างมหาศาล เป็นเพราะประเทศเหล่านี้เข้าใจ "Change" และมี "Technology Literacy" ในระดับสูง
ในปี 1995 มนุษย์สามารถถอดรหัสภาษาของ Genetic Code ซึ่งมีอยู่ในสิ่งมีชีวิตทุกสิ่งไม่ว่าจะเป็นแบคทีเรีย, แมลง, พืช, สัตว์ และมนุษย์ โดย Genetic Code นี้ จะประกอบด้วยตัวอักษรใหญ่ 4 ตัว คือ A-T-C-G เหมือนโครงสร้างภาษาของ Digital Code
ดังนั้น ในอนาคตอันใกล้ ผู้ที่เข้าใจ Genetic Literacy ( Code : A-T-C-G ) และสามารถใช้ประโยชน์จากการคิดค้น Code เหล่านี้ได้เหมือน Digital Code ( 0-1-1-0-0-1-1… ) อาจสามารถสรรสร้างสิ่งต่างๆ ได้อย่างมหาศาล
"If you change this code, just as if you change the code in floppy disk or on a CD, you change the message, the product and the outcome."

[Fernando Olvera · Rating 5 out of 5]

great book!!... as the author said: "you can stand on the sidelines and assume fate will guide things... or you can help yourself, your family, your company and country..." as many scientific reading, many topics looks too close to fiction, but 14 years after this edition, the reality show us the importance to be constantly in education. Today the tech approach ourselves to many ways to keep us intellectually active; now depends of ourselves make the difference.

[Stephanie McMillan · Rating 2 out of 5]

Didn’t finish this one. Picked it up because I thought it looked interested (and it was, to an extent) but some of the predictions were so off it was comical (Amazon being a failure, Napster, the US spending more on preventative medicine than healthcare, Europe struggling with their agricultural systems, etc) The writing style was like a collection of tweets and graphic design. Leaving out Rosalind Franklin’s contribution to the discovery of DNA was what made me finally close the book and move on.

[Alejandro Sandoval · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excelente libro. Hace más de 10 años que lo leí. Da una visión futurista del mundo y la economía. Dado que es un autor Mexico-Americano, da crudos datos sobre México.

A pesar de ser un libro, no tan nuevo, sigue dando muy buenas referencias y alertas sobre lo que deberíamos hacer. Muchas de sus predicciones hoy ya son un hecho.

Finalmente, la "estructura gráfica" de como esta escrito lo hace un libro muy dinámico y original.

[Tetsuya · Rating 1 out of 5]

The author leads us to justify genetics's value by introducing several beneficial applications such as medical treatment, while doesn't mention about its potential risks in ecological context in the application to agriculture. Also indeed genetics is a part of knowledge economy however it is illogical to justify genetics in justification of knowledge economy. It must be inappropriate to measure the value of sciences by referring the amount of generated money and the number of patent requests.

[Salma Par · Rating 2 out of 5]

I had high expectations of this book based on Juan Enriquez’ TED talk. The format of this book just didn’t work for me… It felt like a hyper active person jotting a thought down, and then quickly moving to a another. It was dizzying! Plus, some of the predictions were off (as mentioned by others).

[Tes · Rating 3 out of 5]

Reads like just a stream of random thoughts (loosely or tightly connected to Genes). Literally very hard to read : large type, small type, italicized type, black type on white pages, white type on black pages.

[Juan C.T. · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesante para este libro se queda corto; quizas la estructura mas unica que he visto en mi vida, y solo por eso vale la pena

[Henri Hämäläinen · Rating 1 out of 5]

As I first time scanned through As The Future Catches You by Juan Enriquez, I knew it would be something totally different. Typography of the book looked strange with lots of different font sizes and lots of free spaces throughout the book. Even I was prepared, book was able to surprise me.

Book turned out to be arrogant, irritating and controversial prophecy of how the future will turn out. I have to say I hated the book many times, and I almost quit the book in half way. There was still something interesting enough to keep me going. The actual content of the book is in many points quite interesting to read. There's lot of good facts about what's happening in the science currently (in year 2001) and lots of good thoughts how the future might turn out to be. It's just the way Juan Enriquez presents his thoughts that made me see red.

Problem with a book that has controversial thoughts about the future is that anyone criticizing it's thoughts can be stamped to be old fashioned and not understanding anything about the trends of the future. I think that's also the style how Juan Enriquez wrote the whole book. It is meant to diss the people who don't believe in his thoughts and prophesies.

My full review here.

[Susan · Rating 5 out of 5]

A potentially a quick read -- but not if you'll be so enthralled by the interconnectedness of science/history/economics/culture that you must stop to ponder what you've read and then look at the endnotes. That was me.

The alphabet, the printing press, the digital revolution, and now genomics -- at one time each was a new technology that redefined literacy. And these (r)evolutions are coming at an ever faster rate -- each time by orders of magnitude in speed and knowledge. How are humans to cope with ever-changing knowledge and literacy demands? He underscores the need for future generations to know how to learn. This book should be mandatory reading for school boards and college professors.

Enriquez brilliantly integrates widely divergent ideas into a view of "the future". Although he wrote "As The Future ... " a scant 10 years ago, his vision of the future reads more like a widely curated news summary of our recent events -- yet it still feels like science fiction. Enriquez reveals how "present" the future has become and how small is the number of people who will power it.

One passage to keep in mind
"What matters are the trends going on throughout the world, not the specific knowledge available today ... that will change by the end of the week."

[Tyler · Rating 3 out of 5]

4 stars to the quality of the ideas presented in the book, 2 stars for the ridiculous "writing style" the author employed. Personally, i felt like i was being talked down to the entire time; does Enriquez really feel that unless he capitalized, italicized, and underlined every significant point (which, one would be led to believe, is in almost every single sentence) his readers would be left clueless? Come on, trust us a little bit. It actually reminded me of writing essays in high school, when you hadn't written quite six pages and messed with the font and spacing until it came out long enough. This book has a similar feel, especially in light of the fact that almost every sentence ends with an ellipsis(sp?). Do you remember when you discovered the power of "dot-dot-dot"? Enriquez takes it to a whole new level...

I will admit that it changed the way i think about technology (genomics and computers, specifically), and it was an incredibly quick read (there are really only a few sentences of content on each page). I just wish i could have read it without all the annoying quirks in the text. Seriously, it hurt my eyes.

[Michael Friess · Rating 3 out of 5]

The book was published in 2001 when the human genome was just about to be decoded. It is primarily about life sciences and the dramatic change the author predicts it will have for individuals, nations and companies. It is written in a provocative style to make the reader uneasy and surge for further information.

In the author words: "My objective is not to teach you everything you need to know about technology rather, to start a debate. I hope this will feel like a Chinese meal and leave you hungry to read more ..."

It is a quick, provocative read - more like a snack than a full meal

[Nicko · Rating 4 out of 5]

Technology and knowledge turbocharge economic growth.

In a borderless world....
Those who do not educate.......
And keep their citizenry.....
Will lose most intellectual wars.

The US has gotten lazy in this area. It prefers to import brains rather then generating them in its highschools.

The U.S. patent application rate fueled by Chinese, Nigerian, and Indian intellectual mercenaries is a result of this.

As a developing country you can lower inflation, reduce corruption, cut your budget, privatize and still not get rich

[Melissa · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book blew me away!! I had no idea how scarily futuristic genetic science is these days. I tried to talk to friends and family about the things I learned in this book and people just shrugged like, "oh well." I finally stopped because no one seems interested and therein lies the problem. Most people are not extrmemely science literate and discussions of science and genetics are a bit frightening. These experiments have huge implications and ethical concerns and we all should be more interested in them.

[Josh · Rating 5 out of 5]

The level of a nation's dominance in the world is proportionate to the level of education of its people. A great snipit book that tries to bring attention to the next world changing science, genomics. Genomics will have a similar effect on the world the way the industrial revolution and computers did. I highly recommend this book to anyone interested in the differences between developed and developing nations.

[Paul · Rating 5 out of 5]

An excellent read and a tretise on the state of America's "knowledge economy", the potential it holds and the direction it may head if we neglect our intellectual capital. Examined through the lens of the genonics revolution, the author suggests that those societies who commit to economies based on intellectual horsepower are destined to signifcantly outpace those who do not.

[Jack · Rating 1 out of 5]

Interesting, but not terribly enticing as prose goes. I like complete sentences, come to think of it.

As the Future Catches You really makes you stop and question some of the basic notions about wealth and how it is generated. It would be pretty interesting to see how some of the predictions in the book have played out, now that it is nearly a decade old.

[Dave · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is not meant to be read cover to cover, but it does contain some interesting thoughts on why countries are rich and others poor, the computer, and so on. Most intriguing to me is his assertion that genetics and programming - the language of ACTG and 1,0 are the 'languages' of the future.

[Richard Mendenhall · Rating 5 out of 5]

Some people seem to struggle with this book but I found it to be on of the most facination books I have ever read. I clearly showed me the path of the future and how many people are avoiding that path.

[Kris Wijoyo · Rating 4 out of 5]

gw dapet ni buku dalem bentuk fotokopian...bukunya bagus banget ngebangkitin inspirasi gw untuk ngegerakin temen2 buat cinta sama ilmu pengetahuan...tapi ni buku terlalu pake nalar ampe gw pusing...hehehehe

[Kafaak]

This is a book that Thailand's ex-priminister, Dr. Taksin Shinnawatara, recommended us - Thai people. In the book, you will learn how this many technologies affect you life and work. Some technologies seem to be so far away from us, but we never realize that they are so powerful.

[George Dimitrov · Rating 1 out of 5]

Nothing spectacular about this book. Just a lot of nonsense. A few years latter, Venter is downsizing his Institute and has not come even close to the financial level of Bill Gates. This book is a good front for Juan's lectures and company, but aside from that is a flop.

[Eric · Rating 3 out of 5]

Extremely interesting ideas. Terribly written book.

There were a lot of fascinating ideas, trends, and statistics, but nothing was really explained or expanded. The set-up of the text was a little patronizing. I am able to read full sentences and paragraphs without losing interest.

[Fabiola · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read this book ten years ago, and I quite felt as if I was reading a sci-fi book. Now I know that genomics is changing the world and our daily lifes. And that what Juan Enriquez shared in that book is not fiction, but a shocking reality.

[Amie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Although it was written in the early 2000s, this book still scares the crap out of me. I recommend this read to anyone looking for a glimpse into genetics and how it will (and already has) changed our lives.

[Ligia Bonetti · Rating 3 out of 5]

A book that might scare someone like me … how to cope with the power that technology will bring about is definitely mind blowing and will represent the change of the future. Interesting and simply written.

[Ron · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great book and a clever read. If you enjoyed The World is Flat by Freidman, you will really enjoy this book. Future-thinking and concise. Excellent read and very provocative.

[Mike Williams · Rating 4 out of 5]

A glimpse into the future from someone passionate and knowledgeable about where we are headed. You'll be surprised about what we already know and how it is being used, much less what we are learning.

[Atti · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great book!