Cafe Scientifique Arlington Feb 8 An Optimist's Tour of the Future February 8, 2011

Mark Stevenson, author, comedian and futurologist tells his story of one curious man as he sets out to answer “What’s next?” He traveled over 60,000 miles across four continents, talked to over thirty geniuses, met four robots and had two terrible conversations with a computer in search of answers. Mark explored the looming realities of genome sequencing, synthetic biology, sociable machines, and carbon scrubbing. Drawing on his singular humor and storytelling to explain these discoveries in a way that is simply to understand without being simplistic and paints of picture of the world as we grow up and why it is exciting rather than scary. Stevenson’s recently released book entitled An Optimist's Tour of the Future (published by Profile Books in January 2011 in the UK and by Avery in February 2011 in the United States), which predicts that invention and innovation can help overcome several of humanity's current problems will be for sale that evening.
Special half price burgers; please come early to order table service and socialize. Presentation begins at 6:15 p.m. followed by Q&A
No science background required, only interest!

Official Website: http://www.arlingtonvirginiausa.com/bsta