"The Inevitable" (Kevin Kelly)

TITLE: The Inevitable: Understanding the 12 Technological Forces That Will Shape Our Future
AUTHOR: Kevin Kelly
PUBLISHER: New York, NY: Viking Books, 2016, (336 pages).

With the rising pace of technology, what is going to happen in the next 30 years? What are the ways technology are going to shape our future? What are the evidence that suggest such forces and how can we prepare for it? In a book that looks forward to the next 30 years, author and futurist Kevin Kelly has put together a compelling overview of 12 technological forces that will shape the kind of world we live and will be living in. Calling it "the inevitable," he tells us that we need to embrace the changes that are coming. We need to brace ourselves for changes that are going to be faster, paradigm shifting, and massively different from our traditional models. For example, mass copying will be coming. The traditional gates against plagiarism will crumble. Tracking, surveillance, and the erosion of privacy will continue. Instead of resisting the changes, we need to learn the underlying forces that are same. The author believes that once we understand the digital nature of change, we can deal with the change per se.

Book Review: "Christianity - The First Three Thousand Years"

TITLE: CHRISTIANITY - the First Three Thousand Years
AUTHOR: Diarmaid MacCulloch
PUBLISHER: New York, NY: Viking, 2009, (1161pp).

[This review is first published at YAPDATES here.]

If this book can be made into a film, it will be an epic. Comprehensive, scholarly, and thoroughly captivating, I cannot put this book down.

The Book
This is a book of history, in particular, the story of Christianity as told from the knowledge of an Oxford professor of the History of the Church. The author describes himself as a 'candid friend' of Christianity rather than a dogmatic believer of the Christian faith. At the same time, he does not actively assert the existence of God, positioning himself more like a seeker rather than a know-it-all.

His scholarly prowess is demonstrated in 7 parts, multiple illustrations and maps, an extensive chapter by chapter bibliography, over 1161 pages of content.  The title of each part of the book gives a useful summary to inform the reader where the author is going with his story-telling.