This item is not eligible for Amazon Prime, but millions of other items are. Join
Amazon Prime today. Already a member?
Sign in.
Product Description
From the Author
In this book I offer a way of thinking about the future
I'm as aware as anyone of the perils of predicting the future. Instead I offer a way of thinking about the future. If some genie popped out of a bottle and offered to answer one question about the future, I would want to know whether it was likely to be more or less stable than the present. Stability is fundamental -- in stable times, societies innovate and prosper; in unstable times people turn inward, innovation and investment contracts and people suffer. Thus if we could know whether the future was likely to be more or less stable than the present, we would know a lot about the future. With that in mind I offer nine clues, all of which connect to deep forces that affect stability. In choosing these clues I eliminated problems or trends that might be addressed through technological innovation or other easy fixes. Then, after trying to show how these clues presage a return to instability, I offer a series of scenarios, thought experiments set in the year 2050, that try to imagine how instability might rework the fabric of life in the coming decades. Finally, I address alternative visions of the future, and offer some humanity might moderate the effects of the coming instability.
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
(11 customer reviews)
See all 11 customer reviews...
(