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Michio Kaku is
AT HOME IN THE FUTURE By Paul French
When Michio Kaku was in fourth grade, he happened upon a riddle. Not one of the monumental queries that would consume his later life. No, this one was simple. Leafing through a pamphlet, a young Kaku saw the question, “What do physicists and baseball players have in common?” Curious, he turned the page to read the answer: “They both get paid to do what they love.” Now globally renowned, Dr. Michio Kaku is one of the great popular scientists of our age. A co-founder of string theory, this theoretical physicist has a flair for engaging the masses with education – with appearances in numerous television shows and viral videos. Not to mention, he’s a three-time New York Times #1 bestselling author. However, Kaku might be best known as a futurist – as someone who generates interesting projections about what the technological world of tomorrow will look like. This begs the question though: What qualifies a physicist like Kaku to peer into the future? Over the past few centuries, Kaku explains, physics has been a driving force behind many of the world’s greatest inventions. For instance, the principles of Newtonian physics and thermodynamics set the stage for the complex machinery of the industrial revolution. Since physics reveals the universe’s rules and possibilities, it’s usually one step ahead ofthe technology that applies them. Thus, as an expert in physics, Kaku can see where new tech is headed better than most. Back in 2016, we explored the tech of the future with Dr. Kaku. Now, four years later, the ideas he shared are just as relevant today as they were then.
Photo by Daniel Riff
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INNOVATION & TECH TODAY | 5-YEAR ANNIVERSARY
