The bestselling author's next book will focus on superhuman workout regimens. (Photo from Tim Ferriss' Blog: http://www.fourhourworkweek.com/blog/)

I have no idea if Tim Ferriss is the real deal, but he’s certainly made himself into a big deal. His 2007 bestselling book, The 4 Hour Work Week, promised to show you how to exit the rat race, make tons of money, and pursue your life’s goals without working yourself to death. He appeared at MIT, Harvard, Princeton, the CIA, Google, Live with Regis and Kelly…the list really never ends. He’s been on a constant lecture circuit while still achieving some ridiculous titles. He holds a Guinness World Record for Tango spins, he’s a champion kickboxer in China, and even had a TV show: Trial by Fire on Discovery Channel. Check out the promo after the break.

So, with all the accomplishments, the accolades, and the action, I’m still left with some serious doubts about Tim Ferriss. The 4 Hour Work Week was a great motivational tool, giving detailed plans to refocus your life and live your goals rather than live waiting for them. It was carpe diem for the Internet-age. Likewise, I expect Ferriss’ new book to be well conceived, well researched, and enjoyable. I just don’t think such programs really have the ability to work for everyone.

We don’t have time to review The 4 Hour Work Week here, but sufficed to say that the strategies it lays out are not sustainable for society as a whole. It’s much more about working your way into the upper class and pursuing your interests than it is about increasing the productivity of the economy. It doesn’t take a long time to realize that we can’t all be rich. In fact, riches like Ferriss describes require a base of poorer people. He more or less admits that. In the same vein, I doubt that this next book will form a society-wide revolution in health care. It’s much more likely that it will allow a talented (or indomitable) few to achieve amazing results. That’s kind of already the situation, anyway.

What does excite me about the book, and why were including here at Singularity Hub, is that it will be based on years of personal fitness research. According to Tim, he’s been collecting data on his workouts since he was 15 using state of the art equipment and regular blood tests. There are an increasing number of products that will soon come to market that would allow you to do similar testing. Soon, we all could be writing our own books about getting fit. Like Ferriss’ book, these results would probably only be relevant to the author, but who knows, you might turn yourself into a life-guru. In the end, we’re all suckers for short cuts.

Capable of lifting 200 pounds, but still gentle to the touch.

We have featured other exoskeletons here on the Hub, but this one takes the cake.  The super-suit is being designed for the U.S. Army, where the plan is to turn soldiers into workhorses.  They would be able to lift hundreds of pounds of ammunition and cargo without feeling the slightest bit of strain, making the fast unloading of precious cargo take significantly less time.  The system is run by a computer that receives input from six pressure sensors located on the exoskeleton.  With that input, the computer can then determine which action the user is trying to do and tell the suit to mimic the action before the human actually exerts any force.  The user only feels the weight of his or her arms and not that of the object being lifted.

Currently, the suit is limited in terms of mobility because power and hydraulic pressure come from an external source.  The researchers at Sarcos have yet to develop a portable power source for the suit, but that is on the shortlist of improvements for future designs.  The first step for the researchers was to create an effortless shadowing system and, now that it has been accomplished, they are now moving onto the power problem.  Take a look at the video below to see the XOS suit work its magic.  It’s a few years old but, because of the classified nature of this project, there’s not much footage out there.

Work has already begun on reducing energy consumption so that the device may be powered by a battery pack for up to a days worth of continuous use.  The hydraulic valves that act as the suit’s muscles have been redesigned so that they only require energy when in operation, an improvement in hydraulic function that researchers at Sarcos claim they had to innovate themselves.  While much of the information regarding the project is classified, it is known that military trials of the suit are set to begin sometime this year, if they haven’t already.  While the power situation does not seem to have been worked out just yet, the first uses for the suit will probably be for stationary manual labor.

Such a marvel (pun certainly intended) of engineering and robotics has been a long time coming.  The project began in 2000 and has gone through four evolutions of the suit.  The pace at which this project progressed to the point where superhuman strength is an effortless feat can give credence to the thought that the future is not far off.  Perhaps it may be a few years before these suits are seen on the battlefield, but it is impressive enough to hear somebody say that they gave up on lifting a 200-pound weight after 500 repetitions not because they were tired but because they were bored.

We live in an age of constant progress where man’s mastery of the human body and the world around it has shown that there really are no limitations.  Well, maybe time travel could get a little sticky with all the paradoxes and such, but science fiction and fantasy are fast becoming reality.  This idea began as a children’s story when it first debuted over 45 years ago as Iron Man and nobody but the most die-hard comic book fans ever though that a mechanized suit would possibly exist.  These comic book writers are effectively predicting the future.  Perhaps it is time to switch religions to the Church of Marvel?