Where's My Jetpack? Audiobook By Daniel H. Wilson Ph.D. cover art

Where's My Jetpack?

A Guide to the Amazing Science Fiction Future That Never Arrived

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Where's My Jetpack?

By: Daniel H. Wilson Ph.D.
Narrated by: Stefan Rudnicki
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It's the 21st century, and let's be honest: things are a little disappointing. Despite every World's Fair prediction and the advertisements in comic books, we are not living the future we were promised. By now, life was supposed to be a fully automated, atomic-powered, germ-free Utopia, a place where a grown man could wear a velvet spandex unitard and not be laughed at. Where are the ray guns, the flying cars, and the hoverboards that we expected? What happened to our moon colonies and servant robots?

In Where's My Jetpack? roboticist Daniel H. Wilson takes a hilarious look at the future we imagined for ourselves. You will learn which technologies are already available - and if the technology is not public, you will learn how to build, buy, or steal it. Where's My Jetpack? is an entertaining look at the world that we always wanted.

©2007 Daniel H. Wilson (P)2007 Blackstone Audio Inc. Technology Robotics Innovations History & Culture Future Studies Social Sciences

Critic reviews

"Will produce sly chuckles....surprisingly informative." (The Oregonian)

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I first heard about this book on Boing Boing and podcasts a couple years back. It sounded awesome to me. Dammit, where IS my jetpack? If you've been hiding for the last ten years perhaps there's a lot here still to find fresh. But much of these trails have been well mapped.

Worse, there's still futurism here disconnected from the cultural and social world that propels the subject. The zest for the Reasons Why at the beginning break down and pretty soon we're being regaled with stories of the absurd fantastic. So we're building houses on artificial islands in the Gulf? How's the market for that going? What's the environmental impact? Underwater hotels? The rooms exist but they're not doing brisk business.

In the meantime, James Cameron shoots to the bottom of the ocean in a torpedo sub.

Hopefully Wilson is working on a follow-up--rather than a new forward--that cuts a little deeper than this light compendium.

Starting to Date Itself

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The humor used in this look at our "somewhat disappointing future" really helps to put things into perspective. The outline is easily followed while listening and the reader has a wonderful low and lilting voice. "Fun Facts" are just that - fun. Anyone who has ever wondered about that stuff science fiction is made of should find comfort in this book.

Delightful

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This is an interesting book looking at the future as it was presented in the old pulp science fiction stories through the lens of what we know today. I was not quite sure what to expect here. What I found was like a paging through of a copy of Amazing Stories by your high school science teacher, all the while throwing in remarks on why none of this was going to happen. Along the way you get a smattering of dad joke level humor making light of all of it. The book itself was written in 2007, so a fair amount of the data presented is already out of date. Is it interesting? Yes. Is it informative? Not particularly if you pay any attention at all to science. Is it worth your time and money? Maybe... but I lean a bit towards "probably not". The author's heart was in the right place I think, but his delivery was a bit too condescending for me. If you are interested in the subject, but have not followed much science, I think you might like it better than I did.

Pulp science fiction as reviewed by your science teacher

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Book about future tech from 2007 so there's that... But was a great listen otherwise!

slightly dated, but very funny

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Listened while on a roadtrip from Wisconsin to Florida... This is big time fun, with info to boot! You will love it, I guarantee!

Serious Fun!

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