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A Brief History of the Future; How Visionary Thinkers Changed the World and Tomorrow's Trends Are 'Made' and Marketed
 
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A Brief History of the Future; How Visionary Thinkers Changed the World and Tomorrow's Trends Are 'Made' and Marketed (Paperback)

by Oona Strathern (Author)
5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
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Product details

  • Paperback: 288 pages
  • Publisher: Robinson Publishing (29 Mar 2007)
  • Language English
  • ISBN-10: 1845292189
  • ISBN-13: 978-1845292188
  • Product Dimensions: 19.6 x 12.8 x 2.6 cm
  • Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
  • Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 308,206 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)
  • See Complete Table of Contents

Product Description

Review

"'If you do not think about the future, you cannot have one.' John Galsworthy"


Product Description

Predicting the future is a notoriously precarious, profitable and even dangerous business. This book takes a look at the most interesting, important and influential futurists over the years; from Delphi's virgin visionaries, to pop futurists, science fiction writers, trend gurus and evolutionary experts. It provides a chronological history of the future, looking at the predictions that have shaped our world - Leonardo's flying machines; Darwin's evolutionary theory; Mendeleyev's periodic table; Marx's political futurism; Orwell's Big Brother; von Neumann's game theory that nearly led to World War Three; Buckminster Fuller and Corbusier's visions of social change through architecture. Prediction has become an integral part of business - Shell used scenario planning against oil shocks in the seventies, Nokia has a 'foresight' department, even the government of Lichtenstein has a shiny new futures department. But how do these people think, where do they get their ideas and what influence do they really have over our minds, businesses and politics? As well as the history of this influential, mysterious discipline, this book also gives an insider's view of the workings of future prediction today. Ultimately, we must ask whether we can 'make' the future, or does the future make us?

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5.0 out of 5 stars Forecasting the future has its own archeology, and here is a good guide to it, 10 Mar 2009
One of the more alarming mistakes in foresight work is that forecasters don't see themselves as operating within their own world view, and the preconceptions and priorities of their own time. In fact the very idea of foresight - why do it and how to do it - has changed quite markedly through human history. Knowledge of this historiography is of course important in assessing current forecasts. This is why A Brief History of the Future is an important book.
The book is hardly brief (at 300 pages) so there's no sense that it's a potted history. And it's not compromised by what one - alas - expects of this kind of setup: pandering to all characters in positive or equal terms. In fact a key value of the book is its clear-headed and plucky judgment of who the key figures are (and who are not) and what their contributions have each been (vs what they might have thought they were). It is also unusually even-handed in balancing US and European inputs. Full review at The Future Savvy Journal blog. - Adam Gordon, Author Future Savvy: Identifying Trends to Make Better Decisions, Manage Uncertainty, and Profit from Change.
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