As the Future Catches You: How Genomics & Other Forces Are Changing Your Life, Work, Health & Wealth | 
 enlarge | Author: Juan Enriquez
Publisher: Three Rivers Press
Category: Book
List Price: $13.95
Buy New: $6.49
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Avg. Customer Rating:  40 reviews
Sales Rank: 152227
Media: Paperback
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 259
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.7
Dimensions (in): 9 x 5.5 x 0.5
ISBN: 1400047749
Dewey Decimal Number: 303.483
EAN: 9781400047741
ASIN: 1400047749
Publication Date: October 25, 2005
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Condition: Hardcover edition. Brand new - Most copies have a publishers overstock mark (Publisher close-outs usually have a small ink mark or stamp at the base of the book, but are otherwise brand new.)
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| Editorial Reviews:
Amazon.com's Best of 2001
In As the Future Catches You, Juan Enriquez of the Harvard Business School attempts to capture the trajectory of technological progress and understand the forces shaping our social and economic futures. Enriquez argues that February 2, 2001--the date that anyone with Internet access could contemplate the entire human genome--is akin to 1492 and Columbus's discovery of America. Instead of a new continent however, Enriquez sees the alphabet of DNA (A, adenine; T, thymine; C, cytosine; and G, guanine) and predicts that it will be the "dominant language and economic driver of this century." While none of the ideas presented here are entirely new, As the Future Catches You stands out because of Enriquez's ability to view and connect trends--genomics in particular--in a way that just about anyone can understand. Eye-popping typography and graphics coupled with a compact and almost poetic writing style make this thought-provoking book one to savor. Highly recommended. --Harry C. Edwards
Product Description
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 simple: 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.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 35 more reviews...
 Unique Perspective on the Changing World November 6, 2007
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
"As the Future Catches You" is an interesting and unique treatise on the forces driving change in today's world. The book is written in a unique style, incorporating copious graphics and charts along with varying font faces and sizes.
For those interested in learning about change...and the drivers of change from Juan Enriquez's perspective...this is a good read.
Highly recommended.
 Plainly bad... September 18, 2007
0 out of 2 found this review helpful
I am actually amazed to realize that this book has received so many positive reviews. It is pitiable from start to end. You could perhaps excuse Henriquez' poor writting style if only the content of the book had been something to cheer for. However this is not the case. Unfortunately Henriquez' argument for how genomics will shape the future of all things, is substantiated by oversimplifications and misconceptions generated by an evident lack of scientific knowledge on the author's behalf, or alternatively, a deliberate attempt to impress the unaware reader with overambitious and melodramatic factoids.
... but let us just analyse some of the statements in say, for instance, the
"MOSQUITOES" section, right among the starting pages:
"Mosquitoes
are flying hypodermic needles.
They can infect you with malaria, dengue, and other
awful things" Well... up to here everything is sort of correct - except for the fact that mosquitoes are nothing like hypodermic needles, but that mosquito's feeding apparatus, for instance, is an extremely complicated structure, quite unlike a single syringe, but hey... what do I know? - ... still, let us excuse the imprecision and awful writing style and read a bit more:
"They do so by transferring a little bit of genetic code
through their saliva..." Really? How does that happen then? Because, during the twelve years I have been studying the genetics of tropical diseases, I never heard of a publication where this has been shown... I had the idea that it was the entire microorganism (virus, parasite, bacteria, etc...) that was inoculated and then caused an infection, but apparently it is just a portion of its genetic code... or he is referring to the mosquito's genes? Help me, I'm confused...
"Into your bloodstream..."
"Which then reprograms part of the way your cells operate... "
"By changing your genetic code ever so slightly..." Oooohhhh, I'm scared...
"In ways that can make you very sick." Now, that's what I call an engaging writing style...
Unfortunately, it goes on and on for over two hundred pages...
The Optimistic Jew August 31, 2007
Ostensibly a pronouncement about the extraordinary impact that genetics is about to make on human civilization I found his comments and supporting data on knowledge societies versus commodity societies most enlightening. You live in a country without natural resources? LUCKY YOU! You have a much better chance to live in a democratic country with constitutional protections of individual rights. Countries devoid of natural wealth must invest in their human capital. In the knowledge economy this is more likely to create wealth. Small countries with few natural resources have the highest per capita median incomes in the world. If you live in a resource rich country you are more likely to be ruled by thugs or clowns who enrich themselves by enabling large companies with know-how and technology to extract the resource. They have no need to invest in their human capital. Poverty is the result. Enriquez marshals impressive data to support this claim. My optimism about the future possibilities of the Jewish people and Israel (in my own book "The Optimistic Jew") stems to great degree from Enriquez's book. His observation that now lone individuals and single zip codes can create greater wealth than entire countries enabled me to envisage Israel becoming the richest country in the world in per capita, median income by 2030.
Extraordinarily provocative! March 8, 2007
This book will make you think...a "must read" to understand what is going on in our increasingly science-driven world.
 Information a bit dated. February 11, 2007
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
The information in this book is a bit dated.
The author mostly ignores the stocking market tech-bubble crash, simply referring to it as the "Nasdaq Adjustment". A great deal of companies and employees were "adjusted" out of existance.
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