THE SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER 'Unapologetically optimistic and bracingly realistic, this is the most inspiring book on 'ethical living' I've ever read.' Oliver Burkeman, Guardian 'A monumental event.' Rutger Bregman, author of Humankind 'A book of great daring, clarity, insight and imagination. To be simultaneously so realistic and so optimistic, and always so damn readable... well that is a miracle for which he should be greatly applauded.' Stephen Fry Humanity is in its infancy. Our future could last for millions of years - or it could end tomorrow. Astonishing numbers of people could lead lives of great happiness or unimaginable suffering, or never live at all, depending on what we choose to do today. As we approach a critical juncture in our history, we can make profound moral decisions about how humanity's course plays out. We can create positive change on behalf of future generations, to prevent the use of catastrophic weapons and maintain peace between the world's great powers. We can improve our moral values, navigating the rise of AI and climate change more fairly for generations to come. The challenges we face are enormous. But so is the influence we have. If we choose wisely, our distant descendants will look back on us fondly, knowing we did everything we could to give them a world that is beautiful and just.

In a unique volume, Contested Futures brings together a group of scholars to examine the relationships between social action and the future. Rather than speculating upon what the future might bring, the volume interrogates the metaphors and practices through which the future is mobilized as an object of present day action and agency. The book shifts the analytical gaze from looking into the future to looking at the future as a sociological phenomenon in its own right. Futures are thus contested in as much as they register differences of interest, time frame or organizational and political form. Contestation is also evident in the ascendancy of certain discourses, languages and metaphors which foreclose some futures whilst facilitating others. But futures are far from being simply linguistic abstractions, and in fact can often be seen to harden into material entrenchment as expectations become scripted into 'path dependency' and 'lock in'. Contested Futures is an invaluable analysis for both academics and policy actors seeking a better understanding of the ubiquity of futures-discourse in the context of today's uncertainties.

Part I of "Mind Set!" lays out the Mindsets Naisbitt uses to help you see the future - to process information and experience and put those insights to use in decision making. Among these Mindsets are: Beware of the trap of the hype of change; The future is embedded in the present; Sequence is the enemy of making connections; Don't get so far ahead of the parade that they don't know you are in it; Change comes from a confluence of changing values and economic necessity; and, Don't add unless you subtract.In Part II of the book, Naisbitt lays out five Pictures of the Future that outline major global shifts that must inform anyone's thinking. The reader applies the precepts of the Attitude Mindsets to mine the insights from these portraits that include: Economics - From Nation State to Economic Domain; Europe - Metamorphosis to Theme Park; The Next Big Thing - there is no next big thing; Culture - a visual culture is taking over the world; and, China - Sports will dominate long before its economy is dominant.

For many decades the international community has endeavoured to eliminate extreme poverty; however, it is estimated that around 800 million people still live below the international poverty line of $1.90 a day. This book looks this global problem and presents applicable solutions to show that we can eliminate poverty today and meet the challenge of the UN Sustainable Development Goal 1. The first part of the book discusses what poverty and development are and asks whether the right to development is an international commitment to eradicate poverty. The second part looks at the strategy of the Sustainable Development Goals, and the concept of happiness for all people in the world. It examines the proposition of SDG1, evaluates the first actions taken in this area, and presents the best practice of recent SDG implementation. The final part considers several proposals and presents suggestions on how to make global action more effective. Concise Guides to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals comprises 17 short books, each examining one of the UN Sustainable Development Goals. The series provides an integrated assessment of the SDGs from economic, legal, social, environmental and cultural perspectives.

This book offers a critical account of the historical evolution of tourism through the identification and discussion of key turning points. Based on these considerations, future turning points are identified and evaluated. The volume provides a continuum between the past and future of tourism. Its central themes are the globalisation of tourism; the development of destinations; the importance of mobility and transport; the development of the modern hotel; the diversification of niche tourism and the conceptualisation of the past and future of tourism using the evolutionary paradigm in future studies. The core findings of the book provide the first perspective on how the history of tourism will shape its future.

"What might the futures of practice be like?" is far from a straightforward question. Emphasising "the" before the word future, implies one future. But futures thinkers have identified a range of futures that people think about. In this book we reflect on possible, probable, and preferable futures in relation to practice and work. Readers are invited to consider how their own engagement in shaping possible futures will support ways of working that they deem preferable, even those they can hardly imagine. Challenging Future Practice Possibilities also examines influences that are maintaining the status quo and others that are pushing interest-driven change. Authors consider the major challenges that practice and practitioners face today such as wicked problems, fears for the future and complex demands and opportunities posed by the digital revolution. A number of examples of future-oriented work directions such as protean careers and artificial intelligence enhancing or even replacing human workforces, are considered along with concerns like the vulnerability of many work situations and workers. In some cases workers and employers alike are unprepared for these challenges, while others see adapting to these situations as yet another pathway of practice futures evolution.

'A fascinating book . . . Bhaskar is a reassuringly positive and often witty guide' Observer 'A fascinating, must-read book covering a vast array of topics from the arts to the sciences, technology to policy. This is a brilliant and thought-provoking response to one of the most critical questions of our age: how we will come up with the next generation of innovation and truly fresh ideas?' Mustafa Suleyman, cofounder of DeepMind and Google VP 'Have "big ideas" and big social and economic changes disappeared from the scene? Michael Bhaskar's Human Frontiers is the best look at these all-important questions.' Tyler Cowen, author of The Great Stagnation and The Complacent Class 'Michael Bhaskar explores the disturbing possibility that a complacent, cautious civilization has lost ambition and is slowly sinking into technological stagnation rather than accelerating into a magical future. He is calling for bold, adventurous innovators to go big again. A fascinating book' Matt Ridley, author of How Innovation Works Where next for humanity? Is our future one of endless improvement in all areas of life, from technology and travel to medicine, movies and music? Or are our best years behind us? It's easy to assume that the story of modern society is one of consistent, radical progress, but this is no longer true: more academics are researching than ever before but their work leads to fewer breakthroughs; innovation is incremental, limited to the digital sphere; the much-vaunted cure for cancer remains elusive; space travel has stalled since the heady era of the moonshot; politics is stuck in a rut, and the creative industries seem trapped in an ongoing cycle of rehashing genres and classics. The most ambitious ideas now struggle. Our great-great-great grandparents saw a series of transformative ideas revolutionise almost everything in just a few decades. Today, in contrast, short termism, risk aversion, and fractious decision making leaves the landscape timid and unimaginative. In Human Frontiers, Michael Bhaskar draws a vividly entertaining and expansive portrait of humanity's relationship with big ideas. He argues that stasis at the frontier is the result of having already pushed so far, taken easy wins and started to hit limits. But new thinking is still possible. By adopting bold global approaches, deploying cutting edge technology like AI and embracing a culture of change, we can push through and expand afresh. Perfect for anyone who has wondered why we haven't gone further, this book shows in fascinating detail how the 21st century could stall - or be the most revolutionary time in human history.

After decades of missed opportunities, the door to a sustainable future has closed, and the future we face now is one in which today's industrial civilization unravels in the face of uncontrolled climate change and resource depletion. What is the world going to look like when all these changes have run their course? Author John Michael Greer seeks to answer this question, and with some degree of accuracy, since civilizations tend to collapse in remarkably similar ways. Dark Age America, then, seeks to map out in advance the history of collapse, giving us an idea of what the next five hundred years or so might look like as globalization ends and North American civilization reaches the end of its lifecycle and enters the stages of decline and fall. In many ways, this is Greer's most uncompromising work, though by no means without hope to offer. Knowing where we're headed collectively is a crucial step in responding constructively to the challenges of the future and doing what we can now to help our descendants make the most of the world we're leaving them. John Michael Greer, historian of ideas and one of the most influential authors exploring the future of industrial society, writes the widely cited weekly blog the Archdruid Report and has published more than thirty books including The Long Descent, The Ecotechnic Future, The Wealth of Nature, and After Progress. He lives in Cumberland, Maryland, an old mill town in the Appalachians, with his wife Sara.

This collection of original and classic essays examines the contributions that female authors have made to the short story. The introductory chapter discusses why genre critics have ignored works by women and why feminist scholars have ignored the short-story genre. Subsequent chapters discuss early stories by such authors as Lydia Maria Child and Rose Terry Cooke. Other chapters are devoted to the influences (race, class, sexual orientation, education) that have shaped women's short fiction through the years. Women's special stylistic, formal, and thematic concerns are also discussed in this study. The final essay addresses the ways our contemporary creative-writing classes are stifling the voices of emerging young female authors. The collection includes an extensive five-part bibliography.

Where and who do we want to be? How might we get there? What might happen if we stay on our current course? In The Future of Serious Art, Bidisha uses her personal journey through novels, TV and film to mirror the seismic changes that have occurred in culture and its industries in recent years. The digital revolution has brought all of TV, cinema and music into the palms of our hands. It's easier than ever to bring stories to life, but what happens when artistic work is rebranded as 'content creation'? Where does this leave literary novelists and arthouse filmmakers? What about those auteur-directors who make mainstream but thoughtful films for the big screen? As a storyteller herself, and a woman of colour who isn't a millennial, Bidisha asks who is taken seriously as an artist, what is taken seriously as art now and how that might change over the next century. This brief but mighty book is one of five that comprise the first set of FUTURES essays. Each standalone book presents the author's original vision of a singular aspect of the future which inspires in them hope or reticence, optimism or fear. Read individually, these essays will inform, entertain and challenge. Together, they form a picture of what might lie ahead, and ask the reader to imagine how we might make the transition from here to there, from now to then.

Three Horizons is a simple and intuitive framework for thinking about the future. The framework explains how people often manage to disagree so violently about their visions of the future and how to achieve them - and it offers a practical way to begin constructive conversations about the future at home, in organisations and in society at large. The three horizons are about much, much more than simply stretching our thinking to embrace the short, medium and long term. They offer a co-ordinated way of managing innovation, a way of creating transformational change that has a chance of succeeding, a way of dealing with uncertainty and a way of seeing the future in the present. In this beautifully illustrated book, Bill Sharpe introduces the Three Horizons framework as a prompt for developing a 'future consciousness' - a rich and multi-faceted awareness of the future potential of the present moment - and explores how to put that awareness to work to create the futures we aspire to.

First Published in 1965. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.

'A terrific book - essential reading for everyone seeking to make sense of Artificial Intelligence' Professor Sir Adrian Smith, Director and Chief Executive of the Alan Turing Institute In this myth-busting guide to AI past and present, one of the world's leading researchers shows why our fears for the future are misplaced. The ultimate dream of AI is to build machines that are like us: conscious and self-aware. While this remains a remote possibility, rapid progress in AI is already transforming our world. Yet the public debate is still largely centred on unlikely prospects, from sentient machines to dystopian robot takeovers. In this lively and clear-headed guide, Michael Wooldridge challenges the prevailing narrative, revealing how the hype distracts us from both the more immediate risks that this technology poses - from algorithmic bias to fake news - and the true life-changing potential of the field. The Road to Conscious Machines elucidates the discoveries of AI's greatest pioneers from Alan Turing to Demis Hassabis, and what today's researchers actually think and do. 'Nobody understands the past, the present, the promise and the peril of this new technology better than Michael Wooldridge. The definitive account' Matt Ridley, author of The Rational Optimist 'Effortlessly readable. The perfect guide to the history and future of AI' Tom Chivers, author of The AI Does Not Hate You

"Epiphany Z" is Futurist Thomas Frey's dynamic approach to envisioning, comprehending, and ultimately thriving in the radically different futures emerging around us at the speed of light. Frey's unparalleled ability to detect emerging trends from the smallest of clues gives him an edge on other futurists. Now he's sharing that edge with you. What are tomorrow's hottest industries? What huge industries of today are doomed to extinction? How will our lives be changed by advancements in robotics, in drone technology, in manufacturing and transportation? How can education cope with the explosive new world of enhanced information, hyperactive business environments, cultural shifts that would have been unimaginable as recently as yesterday? Who will be the masters of tomorrow's universe and who will be left behind? Above all, how can you not only protect yourself from the most disruptive aspects of the changes sweeping your way---how can you become one of the masters of those changes? Distilling decades of research, experience, and proven success in correctly identifying and accurately extrapolating today's trends and innovations into tomorrow's realities, Thomas Frey gives you an advance ticket to the most explosive period of change in all of human history. Those changes are taking place now. Thomas Frey shows where they will be taking all of us tomorrow. "EPIPHANY Z" your roadmap to the future.

Hip-Hop and Dismantling the School-to-Prison Pipeline was created for K-12 students in hopes that they find tangible strategies for creating affirming communities where students, parents, advocates and community members collaborate to compose liberating and just frameworks that effectively define the school-to-prison pipeline and identify the nefarious ways it adversely affects their lives. This book is for educators, activists, community organizers, teachers, scholars, politicians, and administrators who we hope will join us in challenging the predominant preconceived notion held by many educators that Hip-Hop has no redeemable value. Lastly, the authors/editors argue against the understanding of Hip-Hop studies as primarily an academic endeavor situated solely in the academy. They understand the fact that people on streets, blocks, avenues, have been living and theorizing about Hip-Hop since its inception. This important critical book is an honest, thorough, powerful, and robust examination of the ingenious and inventive ways people who have an allegiance to Hip-Hop work tirelessly, in various capacities, to dismantle the school-to-prison pipeline.

Uncertain Futures considers how economic actors visualize the future and decide how to act in conditions of radical uncertainty. It starts from the premise that dynamic capitalist economies are characterized by relentless innovation and novelty and hence exhibit an indeterminacy that cannot be reduced to measurable risk. The organizing question then becomes how economic actors form expectations and make decisions despite the uncertainty they face. This edited volume lays the foundations for a new model of economic reasoning by showing how, in conditions of uncertainty, economic actors combine calculation with imaginaries and narratives to form fictional expectations that coordinate action and provide the confidence to act. It draws on groundbreaking research in economic sociology, economics, anthropology, and psychology to present theoretically grounded empirical case studies. These demonstrate how grand narratives, central bank forward guidance, economic forecasts, finance models, business plans, visions of technological futures, and new era stories influence behaviour and become instruments of power in markets and societies. The market impact of shared calculative devices, social narratives, and contingent imaginaries underlines the rationale for a new form of narrative economics.

__________ If you live on planet Earth, you're probably scared about the future. Terrorism, complicated international relations, global warming, killer viruses and a raft of other issues make it hard not to be. Watching the news you have to wonder: is it safe to go out there or not? In The Day It Finally Happens, Mike Pearl games out many of the 'could it really happen?' scenarios we've all speculated about, assigning a probability rating, and taking us through how it would unfold. He explores what would likely occur in dozens of possible scenarios - the final failure of antibiotics, the loss of the world's marine life, the abolition of the British monarchy, and even the arrival of aliens - and reports back from the future, providing a clear picture on how the world would look, feel, and even smell in each of these instances. Hilarious, enlightening, and terrifying, this book makes science accessible and is a unique form of existential therapy, offering practical answers to some of our most worrisome questions. Thankfully, the odds of humanity pulling through look pretty good. __________ For fans of such bestsellers as What If?,The Worst Case Scenario Survival Handbook and The Uninhabitable Earth, as well as Steven Pinker and Malcolm Gladwell, this is a book about future events that we don't really understand and getting to know them in close detail. Entertaining speculation featuring both authoritative research and a bit of mischief: a look at how humanity is likely to weather such happenings as the day nuclear war occurs, the day the global internet goes down, the day we run out of effective antibiotics, and the day immortality is achieved.

If man's next big step is to live and work in space, then what will everyone do out there that is so different from what we are now doing here on Earth? As the future of space comes into focus it is clear that profit and power are the core elements of the new space economy. This entertaining and informative book looks at human settlement in space as a mainstream business opportunity for investors, entrepreneurs and far-sighted individuals seeking to secure their place in the innovative commercial space sector. Dr. Jack Gregg presents a unique 5-phase development roadmap that shows how space will grow from a frontier economy to a mature integrated market. Written in simple, non-technical language, this book answers such questions as: * What is the new industrial space economy? * What are the challenges and roadblocks on the way to a robust space economy? * How will the rapid growth of the new space economy impact commerce back on Earth? * How can one best invest in profitable space-related enterprises? The Cosmos Economy is for readers who hope to be better equipped and more informed about the new space economy; and Investors, entrepreneurs, and futurists who wants to learn how to take part in the business opportunities of the new high frontier of commercial space.

From the man the Wall Street Journal describes as a 'global change guru', more than one hundred of the trends that touch every aspect of our lives. This new and updated edition looks even farther into the future, predicting trends past the first decades of the 22nd century. Patrick Dixon looks at how the future will be Fast, Urban, Tribal, Universal, Radical and Ethical - a future of boom and bust and great economic change as the emerging markets grow up; a future of great advances in medicine and also greater threats from viral epidemics; a future of political shocks and greater conflicts; a future in which people will strive for more privacy and businesses will change the way they relate to their staff and their customers; a future in which there will be driverless cars and solar power generated in the desert will power cities thousands of miles away.

In this updated edition, Dixon shows how recent developments confirm his predictive scheme:

- Artificial intelligence and robotics - profound power and influence over our future world

- Beyond Brexit - the longer term future of the EU and UK

- The long-term impact of the MeToo movement

- The future of Truth - Fake News, propaganda and impact on democracy

- Presidential leadership - rise of powerful figureheads across the world, and potential future conflicts

- And in an entirely new chapter, Dixon extends his predictive horizon to see how the future will look one hundred years from now.

This book presents valuable insights on a vast array of topics in the field of environmental studies. The works published in the book were presented within the scope of the 2013 Sopot Forum of Young Scientists. The Forum is an annual event which provides a platform for young researchers to present their work and exchange ideas with their peers. The aim of the forum is to make science more popular, so the speakers talked about their work in a way that was easily understandable. The book contains actual scientific papers on their own topics of interest. The papers represent different areas of environmental sciences, from biology to physics. The main umbrella topic for this book is "WHERE THE WORLD IS HEADING" and the papers are constructed in such a way as to try to answer this from each contributor's individual perspective.

How will the future leaders of Russia regard the world scene? How will they regard the United States, democracy, free speech, and immigration? What do they think of their current leaders? And what sorts of tactics will they bring to international negotiating tables, political and otherwise? Featuring a new introduction to the paperback that critiques the emerging theory of media weaponization, No Illusions: The Voices of Russia's Future Leaders provides an engaging, intimate, and unprecedented window into the mindsets of the next generation of leaders in Russian politics, business, and economics. In this book, one hundred and eight students in Russia's three most elite universities, the training grounds for the nation's leadership, reveal their thoughts on international relations, neighboring countries, domestic and international media, democratic movements, and their government in focus groups; they speak candidly, passionately, and sometimes sardonically about the United States. As well, Ellen Mickiewicz, one of the world's foremost experts on Russian media, politics, and culture, shows how their total immersion in the world of the internet - an immersion that sets them apart from the current generation of Russian leadership and much of the rest of the country - frames the way that they think and affects their trust in their leaders, the media, and their colleagues. Their worldviews are complex and often contradictory, reflecting complicated personalities that are adaptable yet also subject to much internal strife and "splintering." For example, while many of them are planning to go into politics, they express ambivalence about voting; they have favorable views of democracy, but not of the American model; they are shrewd critics of government propaganda and yet have clearly absorbed residue of Cold War defensiveness. Mickiewicz also looks at the nation's massive protests and nascent political movements to show how they came about and to consider what promise they might hold even in times of narrowing opportunities. She profiles several of Russia's up-and-coming leaders, including charismatic and controversial activist and politician Aleksei Navalny, who, even during his legal trials and house arrest, remains the face of the opposition to the Putin regime. As this book shows, the next generation of Russian leadership promises to hold a rather different worldview from that of the current one, yet it is not a worldview that readily embraces American democracy. No Illusions is a thought-provoking and often surprising glimpse into the future of Russia's foreign relations.

First came the postwar High, then the Awakening of the '60s and '70s, and now the Unraveling.  This audacious and provocative book tells us what to expect just beyond the start of the next century.  Are you ready for the Fourth Turning?

Strauss and Howe will change the way you see the world--and your place in it.  In The Fourth Turning, they apply their generational theories to the cycles of history and locate America in the middle of an unraveling period, on the brink of a crisis.  How you prepare for this crisis--the Fourth Turning--is intimately connected to the mood and attitude of your particular generation.  Are you one of the can-do "GI generation," who triumphed in the last crisis?  Do you belong to the mediating "Silent Majority," who enjoyed the 1950s High?  Do you fall into the "awakened" Boomer category of the 1970s and 1980s, or are you a Gen-Xer struggling to adapt to our splintering world?  Whatever your stage of life, The Fourth Turning offers bold predictions about how all of us can prepare, individually and collectively, for America's next rendezvous with destiny.

Future Trends: A Guide to Decision Making and Leadership in Business is the first and only book to link a decision-making and leadership platform to trends pointing to the future. By identifying sixty global, long-term trends and detailing how businesspeople can leverage them in both the short- and long-term, the book provides readers with a powerful body of knowledge unavailable anywhere else. In Future Trends, consultant and futurist Larry Samuel: *Identifies sixty significant and opportunistic global, long-term trends; *Details how businesspeople can leverage each trend in both the short- and long-term via a decision-making and leadership platform; *Helps readers be recognized as a trusted source and "go-to" person in their respective field by becoming more fluent in the future; *Takes a 360-degree, holistic view of tomorrow by examining cultural, economic, political, social, scientific, and technological trends; *Steers clear from here-today-gone-tomorrow things and experiences that comprise most glimpses into the emerging cultural landscape Future Trends is divided into six sections covering Cultural Trends, Economic Trends, Political Trends, Social Trends, Scientific Trends, and Technological Trends. Each section includes ten trends that indicate where the world is heading. Many futurists focus on technology, forgetting the fact that the ways in which people actually live their lives are shaped by many other factors. Future Trends thus takes a 360-degree, holistic view of tomorrow, offering readers a fuller understanding of life on Earth over the next couple of decades.

Our species is entering a new era. Millions of years ago, we created tools to change our environment. Caves became huts, fires became ovens, and clubs became swords. Collectively these tools became technology, and the pace of innovation accelerated. Now we're applying the latest advancements to our own biology, and technology is becoming part of the process. But is that a good thing? Not if media scare pieces about government spying, limitless automation, and electronic addictions are to be believed. But veteran journalist and best-selling author Peter Nowak looks at what it means to be human - from the relationships we form and the beliefs we hold to the jobs we do and the objects we create - and measures the impact that those innovations have had and will have in the future. He shows not only how advancements in robotics, nanotechnology, neurology, and genetics are propelling us into a new epoch, but how they're improving us as a species. Nowak has compiled the data and travelled the world to speak to experts. Focusing on the effects of technology rather than just its comparatively minor side effects, he finds a world that is rapidly equalizing, globalizing, and co-operating.