Speed: How It Explains the World

Prepare to view the world through a new lens – SPEED – a groundbreaking exploration that challenges your perceptions of life’s driving force, from the internationally bestselling author

‘There is perhaps no other academic who paints pictures with numbers like Smil’ Guardian

In a world that feels like it’s moving faster than ever, Smil examines how our relentless pursuit of speed – in areas such as production, travel and communication – shapes not only our technological landscape but also our social and environmental realities. And through engaging anecdotes and striking statistics, Smil challenges the assumption that faster is always better.

He invites readers to reconsider the implications of our collective obsession with speed, and its intricate relationship with nature and innovation. For example, he highlights the surprising fact that erosion can actually accelerate mountain growth, and he points out that the rapid adoption of mobile phones – achieving 90 per cent penetration in just nineteen years – reflects historical patterns of technological adoption, suggesting that our world may not be moving significantly faster than in the past.

Whether exploring the tiny mites that can traverse 300 times their body length in a second or the societal impacts of high-frequency trading, Speed invites readers to engage in a more balanced conversation about the role of speed in our lives, in an age defined by haste.