Rating: 
Summary: Some Real Gems
Review:
I know and admire the author, whose other non-fiction book, "Hacker Crackdown" was an extraordinary contribution to social understanding, of both the abuse of uninformed government power, and the potential enlightenment that could be achieved by hackers (who are like astronauts, pushing the envelope in cyberspace).
This book is uneven. There are some truly brilliant gems, but there is also a lot of rambling, and I fear that the author's brilliance as a science fiction writer may have intimidated the publisher and editor into settling for what they got, instead of what the author is truly capable of producing when diligently managed. However, after thoroughly reviewing the book to write the review, I ended up going for 5 instead of 4 stars because this kind of writing is uncommon and provocative and my lack of patience may be the external limiting factor. There are a number of gifted turns of phrase and ideas, and so I do recommend this book for purchase, for reading, and for recurring review. The author focuses on generic engineering, imagining an order of magnitude of achievement beyond what is now conceptualized; he properly redefines education in the future as being disconnected from the schools that today are socializing institutions, beating creativity out of children and doing nothing for adults that need to learn, unlearn, and relearn across their lifetimes; he is brilliant in conceptualizing both crime as necessary and exported instability as tacitly deliberate--Africa as the whorehouse and Skid Row of the world; he recognizes oil as the primary source of instability and inequality, sees all politicians as devoid of grand vision (and we would surmise, character as well); he is hugely successful in talking about the mythical "American people" that do not exist, about moral panics after Enron or 9-11 that achieve no true reform; and his focus on the information age basics that make it cheaper to migrate business than people, that make it essential for the Germans to see through Microsoft's insecure code and thus to opt for LINUX or open source code for their military as well as their government systems in general. He ends brilliantly in conceptualizing a new world order within a new world disorder, in which very rich individuals combine with very poor recruits from a nationless diaspora, a new network that looks like Al Qaeda but has opposite objectives. In the larger scheme of things, as the author concludes, Earth is debris and the humans are on their way to being the Sixth Extinction. Party while you can.
Rating: 
Summary: Brilliant Futurist Architecture Built on Weak Foundations
Review: Bruce Sterling is, without doubt, a brilliant futurist. In "Tomorrow Now", he serves up a feast of clever and entertaining prognostications about humanity's near future. But reader beware! The book is like a gleaming, new building whose stunning design, lavish decoration and gleaming contours can blind observers to many small architectural flaws and the crucial fact that it's built on shaky foundations. To take one example, Sterling tells us in one paragraph that a "cruise missile ... is just a rich guy's truck bomb". But in the very next paragraph he emphasizes that there are in fact huge differences between cruise missiles and truck bombs that go far beyond the class background of their users. Cruise missiles are produced and deployed by complex, industrially advanced societies, while truck bombs are used by terrorists who operate beyond the ken of settled governments and civilized society. Another, more serious example of some of the less-than-deep thinking that went into this book is its overall organizational gimmick, which is based on the "Seven Ages of Man" so poetically described by Shakespeare and Marlowe. Sterling emhasizes the chronological aspect of these "Ages" by labelling his chapters as stages. Stage 1 is the Infant, Stage 2 is the Student, and so on. He uses these stages as conceptual launching pads for fascinating riffs on a variety of subjects related to 21st century technology, culture and politics. In the chapter on the Infant, for instance, he writes at length about future bioengineering not just for babies but also adults and what this will mean for huminaty as a whole. In "Stage 4: The Soldier" he speculates on the nature of future warfare. Thus, Sterling is really often talking about cross-cutting themes rather that chronological ages, which is more than a little confusing. Why he did this, except that it is so cool to quote from Shakespeare, escapes me. A final example of Sterling's inconsistency is the subtitle of the book itself: "Envisioning the Next 50 Years". In fact, he often describes trends from the late 21st century, which puts us more than 50 years ahead. So why didn't he just call the book "Envisioning the 21st Century"? Search me. This is a great book, but Sterling's slickness can't completely compensate for these weaknesses. Cool soundbytes, technological virtuosity, cute wordplay and even large dollops of honest-to-God weighty insight are not enough to make up for some rather shoddy underlying illogic and conceptual weaknesses.
Rating:
Summary: Brilliant Futurist Architecture Built on Weak Foundations
Review: Bruce Sterling is, without doubt, a brilliant futurist. In "Tomorrow Now", he serves up a feast of clever and entertaining prognostications about humanity's near future. But reader beware! The book is like a gleaming, new building whose stunning design, lavish decoration and gleaming contours can blind observers to many small architectural flaws and the crucial fact that it's built on shaky foundations. To take one example, Sterling tells us in one paragraph that a "cruise missile ... is just a rich guy's truck bomb". But in the very next paragraph he emphasizes that there are in fact huge differences between cruise missiles and truck bombs that go far beyond the class background of their users. Cruise missiles are produced and deployed by complex, industrially advanced societies, while truck bombs are used by terrorists who operate beyond the ken of settled governments and civilized society. Another, more serious example of some of the less-than-deep thinking that went into this book is its overall organizational gimmick, which is based on the "Seven Ages of Man" so poetically described by Shakespeare and Marlowe. Sterling emhasizes the chronological aspect of these "Ages" by labelling his chapters as stages. Stage 1 is the Infant, Stage 2 is the Student, and so on. He uses these stages as conceptual launching pads for fascinating riffs on a variety of subjects related to 21st century technology, culture and politics. In the chapter on the Infant, for instance, he writes at length about future bioengineering not just for babies but also adults and what this will mean for huminaty as a whole. In "Stage 4: The Soldier" he speculates on the nature of future warfare. Thus, Sterling is really often talking about cross-cutting themes rather that chronological ages, which is more than a little confusing. Why he did this, except that it is so cool to quote from Shakespeare, escapes me. A final example of Sterling's inconsistency is the subtitle of the book itself: "Envisioning the Next 50 Years". In fact, he often describes trends from the late 21st century, which puts us more than 50 years ahead. So why didn't he just call the book "Envisioning the 21st Century"? Search me. This is a great book, but Sterling's slickness can't completely compensate for these weaknesses. Cool soundbytes, technological virtuosity, cute wordplay and even large dollops of honest-to-God weighty insight are not enough to make up for some rather shoddy underlying illogic and conceptual weaknesses.
Rating:
Summary: Brilliant Futurist Architecture Built on Weak Foundations
Review: Bruce Sterling is, without doubt, a brilliant futurist. In "Tomorrow Now", he serves up a feast of clever and entertaining prognostications about humanity's near future. But reader beware! The book is like a gleaming, new building whose stunning design, lavish decoration and gleaming contours can blind observers to many small architectural flaws and the crucial fact that it's built on shaky foundations. To take one example, Sterling tells us in one paragraph that a "cruise missile ... is just a rich guy's truck bomb". But in the very next paragraph he emphasizes that there are in fact huge differences between cruise missiles and truck bombs that go far beyond the class background of their users. Cruise missiles are produced and deployed by complex, industrially advanced societies, while truck bombs are used by terrorists who operate beyond the ken of settled governments and civilized society. Another, more serious example of some of the less-than-deep thinking that went into this book is its overall organizational gimmick, which is based on the "Seven Ages of Man" so poetically described by Shakespeare and Marlowe. Sterling emhasizes the chronological aspect of these "Ages" by labelling his chapters as stages. Stage 1 is the Infant, Stage 2 is the Student, and so on. He uses these stages as conceptual launching pads for fascinating riffs on a variety of subjects related to 21st century technology, culture and politics. In the chapter on the Infant, for instance, he writes at length about future bioengineering not just for babies but also adults and what this will mean for huminaty as a whole. In "Stage 4: The Soldier" he speculates on the nature of future warfare. Thus, Sterling is really often talking about cross-cutting themes rather that chronological ages, which is more than a little confusing. Why he did this, except that it is so cool to quote from Shakespeare, escapes me. A final example of Sterling's inconsistency is the subtitle of the book itself: "Envisioning the Next 50 Years". In fact, he often describes trends from the late 21st century, which puts us more than 50 years ahead. So why didn't he just call the book "Envisioning the 21st Century"? Search me. This is a great book, but Sterling's slickness can't completely compensate for these weaknesses. Cool soundbytes, technological virtuosity, cute wordplay and even large dollops of honest-to-God weighty insight are not enough to make up for some rather shoddy underlying illogic and conceptual weaknesses.
Rating: 
Summary: Not STERLING, not gold, just boring
Review: I enjoy all of Bruce's fiction. Every book and article has been great. But these article are boring and uninspiring.
No-one could ever finish reading this useless stuff in 50 years.
It makes you wonder how he can write such good science fiction.
Actually, I have found his no-fiction science in various magazines very good but these are not. I ordered this before it was even published , since he has never disappointed me.
This is a great disappointment since I expect much more from him.
Rating:
Summary: Not STERLING, not gold, just boring
Review: I enjoy all of Bruce's fiction. Every book and article has been great. But these article are boring and uninspiring.
No-one could ever finish reading this useless stuff in 50 years.
It makes you wonder how he can write such good science fiction.
Actually, I have found his no-fiction science in various magazines very good but these are not. I ordered this before it was even published , since he has never disappointed me.
This is a great disappointment since I expect much more from him.
Rating:
Summary: Sterling's Future
Review: I enjoyed Tomorrow Now tremendously; it's not as densely-packed with speculative nuggets as some of the author's work, but his approach here waxes more poetic than techno-polemical, and focuses on the human context of the changes he's projecting, and the attendant dilemnas and decisions we'll need to confront in order to navigate it all. This book is not about "nuts-and-bolts" futurism, but about the choices and conflicts surrounding social, political and technological change, and I found it extremely grounded and candid.
Rating:
Summary: A Good Author Loses His Grip
Review: I have enjoyed Sterling's fiction and probably will continue to do so. Unfortunately, he has skidded off the runway with Tomorrow Now. This is a pile of words with no real ideas, just recycled catch-memes that read like the breathless cyber-cheerleading mindporn of a late-nineties Wired issue. Between the lines of this book is the feeling that Sterling felt compelled to write it; that he needed to publish a volume of punditry in order to continue being invited to Davos, an achievement that he mentions frequently enough to be irritating. An author of his stature and experience shouldn't have to strike a pose, over and over, but that is what this book is really about. If you want to understand the future, go back and read Orwell.
Rating: 
Summary: Surprisingly staid
Review: I like Bruce's work a lot, both his SF and his punditry/journalism on the Viridian list and elsewhere. So I had pretty high hopes for this, but unfortunately came away unsatisfied. Years ago, Bruce said that cyberpunk aimed for "crammed prose" - a density of ideas, impressions and telling details which his own SF novels provide brilliantly. "Tomorrow Now" is far from crammed - it's padded. While there are cool, convincing ideas (cloned babies will grow up to be the world's most angry adolescents) on past evidence I'd expect about 10x more of them per page. I haven't read a lot of futurology books, so this may compare more favorably to most of them. But for Sterling fans this is thin stuff.
Rating:
Summary: No meat and no potatoes..............
Review: I read the book in a little over two hours. In the title, Sterling says he is "envisioning the next fifty years." In fact the book is little about the next fifty years as it is Sterling's own thoughts about the past fifty years. In the introduction to the book he presents his "seven novel aspects of the twenty-first century." He does this using a character from Shakespeare's 'As You Like It'; Jaques, who is best know for his famous lecture, which begins with: "all the world's a stage" and ends with "Sans teeth, sans eyes, sans taste, sans everything." It would have been more appropriate if Sterling had used Shakespeare's 'Much Ado About Nothing.' Sterling tells us he is both a Science Fiction writer and a Futurologist. I know a Futurologist when I see one, and Sterling is no Futurologist.
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