Soonish

I loved this book and all of the comics.

The Weinersmiths have more than a funny name. They are thoughtful, intelligent, AND funny! I literally laughed out loud several times.

Each chapter is divided into three sections: an introduction to the topic; “Where are we now,” which is consistently the meaty section of the chapter; concerns; “How it could change the world;” and a Nota Bene, which is sort of a connected side note narrated by Zach.

My favorite chapters are those dedicated to space, programmable matter, and precision medicine, but I learned from all of them. I really like the idea of having a bucket of nano-particle goo that will shape itself into any object I request. Sort of a T-1000 without the murdery intent. (Yes, “murdery,” not “murderous.” Stupid spell check trying to tell me what to do.)

The conclusion is also loaded with jokes. For example, I learned that scientists most fear the in-word. Included in the conclusion is the graveyard of topics that didn’t make it into the book. Each of those entries is a few pages introducing the topic and an explanation for cutting it. The Nota Bene of the conclusion on mirror organisms is my favorite. Any section that includes this combination of sentences has to be a favorite: “However, one downside was that some eaters of Olestra products experienced an increased rate of (squeamish readers beware) ‘anal oil leakage.’ This being one of the less good leakages, Olestra has largely been shelved.”

This is the month that the internet becomes book form and then I read it? Except, in contrast to the other book-form internets that I've read this month, Soonish isn't based on a blog, but rather the webcomic Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal. Which is one of those things that makes me feel a little less lonely: there are a nonzero number of people out there who, like me, eagerly wake up in the morning to read the newest math/D&D/physics/astronomy joke-based comic strip. I'm not alone in the universe.

Soonish is actually primarily by the wife of the SMBC guy, Dr. Weinersmith, who is a PhD in parasitology and her scholarly publication list certainly dwarfs her lay publications. In my opinion, the scholarly bent showed: it's easy to go off of the scifi deep end here, but Dr. Weinersmith both explained things clearly, but also evidently spent a lot of time interviewing the top scholars in the field and making sure she was accurately depicting the current state of each field as well as the promises that it might contain. Ultimately, because the book focuses on multiple future technologies in a fairly rapid fire way it was light reading, but I don't think overly simplified.

I always have pause to see my own field depicted in the lay literature: here in the form of CRISPR, synthetic DNA and precision medicine, but I found it mostly well done, with a couple of metaphors that didn't quite work out. If that's the barometer for the overall scientific rigor of the book, I would say it's in about the 95th percentile of pop science writing.

And the illustrations certainly helped! As a reader of SMBC, I found the comics absolutely consistent with the tone of the webcomic -- funny and a little dry.