What do you think?
Rate this book
Omni's Continuum: Dramatic Phenomena from the New Frontiers of Science
Omni's Dramatic Phenomena from the New Frontiers of Dick Omni's Dramatic Phenomena from the New Frontiers of Little Brown and FIRST First Edition, First Printing. Not price-clipped. Published by Little Brown and Company, 1982. Octavo. Paperback. Book is very good. Seller 323233 Science & Nature
256 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1982
About the author
Dick Teresi
20 books7 followersDick Teresi is the coauthor of The God Particle and the author of Lost Discoveries: The Ancient Roots of Modern Science, both selected as New York Times Book Review Notable Books. He has been the editor in chief of Science Digest, Longevity, VQ, and Omni, and has written for The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, and The Atlantic, among other publications.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 1 of 1 review
June 7, 2023
Omni Magazine was a fascinating thing to read in its era. Interviews with major scientists, obscure scientists, pseudoscientists; amazing artwork and science fiction; editorials about the future of science by science fiction writers and professional futurists. The section I looked forward to most, however, was Continuum, which collected snippets about potential scientific advances and speculations, extending well into the pseudoscientific. Whether it was black holes, mermaids, alien abductions, or monkey orgasms, Continuum covered it.
Sadly, while the items collected came from the monthly magazine, none of the items are dated. It’s not a huge flaw, since Omni’s first issue was in late 1978 and this book was published in 1982, but it does make the collection less useful.
Much of the advances remain speculative today. The book begins with the potential for a “brown fat diet” in weight loss, and, apparently, the relationship between brown fat and weight remains speculation today.
It includes some of the quotes that were sprinkled throughout Continuum as well, and they’re just as unsourced as they were in the magazine. Good luck finding out where they came from, or if they’re sourced correctly!
Some of the science is impossible to track down as well. In a snippet titled “Suspended Animation”, there’s an interesting note about a brain protein that slows down all metabolic functions:
Whatever amcurine was or is, it’s probably not called that today. Except for one nonsense result, there are literally no results on googling it.
The speculation is as optimistic as the science fiction that shared its pages. A snippet about using goats to recycle waste into food in space travel ends with “…an actual flight may be ten or more years away.”
Even their optimistic pessimism has not borne fruit.
“Within 30 years” was more than ten years ago.
I still remember one of the more evocative speculations, that ancient voices might have been captured “in the grooves of ancient pottery and glass artifacts”. It remains a dream today, although I’m not sure how serious the effort is. There are as many rickrolls and television episodes as there are (apparently) serious researchers.
Sadly, while the items collected came from the monthly magazine, none of the items are dated. It’s not a huge flaw, since Omni’s first issue was in late 1978 and this book was published in 1982, but it does make the collection less useful.
Much of the advances remain speculative today. The book begins with the potential for a “brown fat diet” in weight loss, and, apparently, the relationship between brown fat and weight remains speculation today.
It includes some of the quotes that were sprinkled throughout Continuum as well, and they’re just as unsourced as they were in the magazine. Good luck finding out where they came from, or if they’re sourced correctly!
“We must welcome the future remembering that soon it will be the past. We must respect the past remembering that once it was all that was humanly possible.”—George Santayana
Some of the science is impossible to track down as well. In a snippet titled “Suspended Animation”, there’s an interesting note about a brain protein that slows down all metabolic functions:
The key chemical is a brain protein called a peptide that functions as a chemical information carrier. The Max Planck team has dubbed it amcurine. When laboratory-synthesized amcurine was given to test animals at the institute, their oxygen consumption and respiration rates were lowered and their body temperature decreased; all their metabolic functions slowed down. In cell-culture tests, cell division and DNA transcription were found to slow down when amcurine was present.
Whatever amcurine was or is, it’s probably not called that today. Except for one nonsense result, there are literally no results on googling it.
The speculation is as optimistic as the science fiction that shared its pages. A snippet about using goats to recycle waste into food in space travel ends with “…an actual flight may be ten or more years away.”
Even their optimistic pessimism has not borne fruit.
Taking up where Charles Darwin left off, a scientist at Carnegie-Mellon’s Robotics Institute has linked the future of human evolution to robots and the computer. Within 30 years, according to Hans Moravec, computers will be more intelligent than humans, and robot limbs will be more durable than human ones. The result: People will trade their feeble mortal frames for powerful robot shells and their plodding brains for superintelligent computers.
“Within 30 years” was more than ten years ago.
I still remember one of the more evocative speculations, that ancient voices might have been captured “in the grooves of ancient pottery and glass artifacts”. It remains a dream today, although I’m not sure how serious the effort is. There are as many rickrolls and television episodes as there are (apparently) serious researchers.
“There’s a hell of a good universe next door. Let’s go.”—e.e. cummings
Displaying 1 - 1 of 1 review