The author of The Modern Girl's Guide to Life asks fifty experts, artists, business leaders, trendsetters, doctors, athletes, environmentalists, and intellectuals

What will the next decade look like?

Where are we headed? That is the question professional trendspotter Jane Buckingham posed to fifty influential leaders in a wide variety of fields--and their responses are surprising, provocative, compelling, and important. The result of her conversations with some of the most fascinating men and women in America today, What's Next is an essential collection of highly individual perspectives on tomorrow's world, including:

Our world is changing faster than ever. The essential insights offered in What's Next can help us keep up--and stay ahead.

Acclaimed writer Reza Aslan's belief that American Islam may become the model for Islam throughout the rest of the world

Attorney Alan Dershowitz's views on the very scientific future of criminal defense law

Campaign adviser Joe Trippi's thoughts on how politics will be turned upside down . . .

and more

Our world is changing faster than ever. The essential insights offered in What's Next can help us keep up--and stay ahead.

Modern science, the Internet, big data, and AI are each saying the same thing to us: the world is--and always has been--far more complex and unpredictable than we've allowed ourselves to see. As a result we're undergoing a sea change in our understanding of how things happen, and in our deepest strategies for predicting, preparing for, and managing our lives and our businesses.

For example, machine learning allows us to make better predictions (think the weather, stock performance, online clicks) but we know less about why those predictions are right--and we need to get used to that. And in fact, over the past twenty years we've been unintentionally developing strategies that avoid anticipating what will happen so we don't have to depend on unreliable revenue forecasts, assumptions about customer needs, and hypotheses about how a product will be used. By embracing these strategies, we're flourishing by creating yet more possibilities and yet more unpredictability.

In wide-ranging stories and characteristically all-encompassing syntheses, technology researcher, internet expert, and philosopher David Weinberger reveals the trends that hide in so many aspects of our lives--and shows us how they matter.

Funny, clear, deep, and right on target. Siegfried] lets us get a handle on ideas that are essential for understanding the evolving world.
-K. C. Cole, author of The Universe and the Teacup
""An eager, ambitious book. A stimulating, accessible introduction to scientific theory.""
-Dallas Morning News
An award-winning journalist surveys the horizon of a new revolution in science
Everything in the universe, from the molecules in our bodies to the heart of a black hole, is made up of bits of information. This is the radical idea at the center of the new physics of information, and it is leading to exciting breakthroughs in a vast range of science, including the invention of a new kind of quantum computer, millions of times faster than any computer today. Acclaimed science writer Tom Siegfried offers a lively introduction to the leading scientists and ideas responsible for this exciting new scientific paradigm.

Can each of us achieve our own "American dream" while recognizing needs of other individuals, society, and future generations? Not if our present national policies continue, warns long term planning expert Joseph L. Daleiden. He persuasively argues that if present socioeconomic trends remain, our nation faces social disaster before the middle of the 21st century.
These trends can be reversed, he insists, but only if we are willing to (1) reject failed policies both liberal and conservative directed at population growth, the environment, the national debt, trade, poverty, crime, race relations, education, healthcare, social security, and tax reform; (2) accept that all of these areas of concern are intertwined; and (3) take responsibility for our decisions.
Avoiding ideology and platitudes, Daleiden's pragmatic approach relies on actual evidence of how prospective policies will influence human behavior and whether their outcomes will increase or decrease human happiness in the long run.

This volume presents a neural network architecture for the prediction of conditional probability densities - which is vital when carrying out universal approximation on variables which are either strongly skewed or multimodal. Two alternative approaches are discussed: the GM network, in which all parameters are adapted in the training scheme, and the GM-RVFL model which draws on the random functional link net approach. Points of particular interest are: - it examines the modification to standard approaches needed for conditional probability prediction; - it provides the first real-world test results for recent theoretical findings about the relationship between generalisation performance of committees and the over-flexibility of their members; This volume will be of interest to all researchers, practitioners and postgraduate / advanced undergraduate students working on applications of neural networks - especially those related to finance and pattern recognition.

Nature, Risk and Responsibility explores ethical interpretations of biotechnology and examines whether sufficient consensus exists or is emerging to enable this technology to occupy a stable role in the techno-economic, social and cultural order. The contributors address the nature and prospective implications of biotechnologies for nature, life and social organisation and employ a wide range of social theories to evaluate risks and propose responses.

An introductory guide to managing cybersecurity for businesses. How to prevent, protect and respond to threats. Providing an insight to the extent and scale a potential damage could cause when there is a breech in cyber security. It includes case studies and advice from leading industry professionals, giving you the necessary strategies and resources to prevent, protect and respond to any threat: * Introduction to cyber security * Security framework * Support services for UK public and private sectors * Cyber security developments * Routing a map for resilience * Protecting financial data * Countermeasures to advance threats * Managing incidents and breaches * Preparing for further threats * Updating contingency plans

As a new century and a new millenium approach, the world braces itself for an outpouring of popular excitement, tabloid predictions and religious hysteria, all egged on by a strong dose of mass-media attention. This work offers an antidote to this information overload with a look at earlier millennial fevers and turn-of-the-century neuroses, from ancient times to 1999 in Times Square. By examining the past, it provides a perspective on the millennial hype coming in the near future.

In Japan, the Delphi method is applied since 1971 to foresee possible technological developments. The same approach was used in Germany in 1992 for the first time. The German expert survey about the development of future technology was based on the Japanese survey conducted in 1991 and discussed the same topics.
In this book, the results of both studies are compared and analysed. From the comparison, conclusions can be drawn on the relevance of certain technology fields or disciplines not only for public technology policy but also for companies. Possible times of realization, constraints on the realization, the current R&D level of nations or the necessity of international co-operation give hints about tomorrow's technology and its economic and societal impacts.

In today's world, numbers are in the ascendancy. Societies dominated by star ratings, scores, likes and lists are rapidly emerging, as data are collected on virtually every aspect of our lives. From annual university rankings, ratings agencies and fitness tracking technologies to our credit score and health status, everything and everybody is measured and evaluated. In this important new book, Steffen Mau offers a critical analysis of this increasingly pervasive phenomenon. While the original intention behind the drive to quantify may have been to build trust and transparency, Mau shows how metrics have in fact become a form of social conditioning. The ubiquitous language of ranking and scoring has changed profoundly our perception of value and status. What is more, through quantification, our capacity for competition and comparison has expanded significantly - we can now measure ourselves against others in practically every area. The rise of quantification has created and strengthened social hierarchies, transforming qualitative differences into quantitative inequalities that play a decisive role in shaping the life chances of individuals. This timely analysis of the pernicious impact of quantification will appeal to students and scholars across the social sciences, as well as anyone concerned by the cult of numbers and its impact on our lives and societies today.

Whether it's an unforeseen financial crash, a shock election result or a washout summer that threatens to ruin a holiday in the sun, forecasts are part and parcel of our everyday lives. We rely wholeheartedly on them, and become outraged when things don't go exactly to plan. But should we really put so much trust in predictions? Perhaps gut instincts can trump years of methodically compiled expert knowledge? And when exactly is a forecast not a forecast? Forewarned will answer all of these intriguing questions, and many more. Packed with fun anecdotes and startling facts, Forewarned is a myth-busting guide to prediction, based on the very latest scientific research. It lays out the many ways forecasting can help us make better decisions in an unpredictable modern world, and reveals when forecasts can be a reliable guide to the uncertainties of the future - and when they are best ignored.

A manifesto for transforming our thinking from reactionary short-termism to the long-term, widening our scope beyond today, tomorrow, even five years from now to gain perspective, become more creative, and reclaim meaning in our lives.

Every major problem we face today, from climate change to work anxiety, is the result of short-term thinking. We are constantly bombarded by updates, notifications, and “Breaking News,” that are overwhelming our central nervous systems, forcing us to react in the moment and ultimately disconnecting us from what truly matters. But there is a solution. We must embrace what Ari Wallach, futurist and founder of Longpath Labs, calls the “longpath”—a mantra and mindset he developed to help us get beyond short-term thinking, focus on the long view, and cultivate a futureconscious mindset.

Drawing on history, philosophy, theology, neuroscience, evolutionary psychology, and technology, Longpath reframes how we see our lives and the world. Wallach teaches us how to utilize the longpath mindset to strengthen our ability to look ahead, increase our capacity for cooperation, and even boost our creativity. Every decision we make today impacts the future. Wallach helps us improve our decision-making, challenging each of us to ask, “what is my longpath?”—what is my end goal and how does my choice align with my values and needs?

Whether it’s work, marriage, parenting, or simply trying to be a good human on the planet, framing decisions from a much larger scale creates a more fulfilling and sustainable life now and for future generations. By adopting the longpath mindset, we can relieve our reaction to stressful events and occurrences, cultivate future-conscious thinking, and come up with solutions to improve our lives today and tomorrow—and those of future generations.

This textbook provides an introduction to the scientific study of sociology and other social sciences. It offers the basic tools necessary for readers to become both critical consumers and beginning producers of scientific research on society. The authors present an integrated approach to research design and empirical analyses in which researchers can develop and test causal theories. They use examples from social science research that students will find engaging and inspiring and that will help them to understand key concepts. The book makes technical materials accessible to students who might otherwise be intimidated by mathematical examples. This new text, with the addition of sociologist Steven A. Tuch to the author team, follows the successful format, approach, and pedagogical features in Paul M. Kellstedt and Guy D. Whitten's bestselling text, The Fundamentals of Political Science Research, now in its third edition. Workbooks in Stata, SPSS, and R, three of the most popular statistical analysis programs, are available as separate purchases to accompany this textbook, enabling students to connect the lessons of this book to hands-on applications of the software.

A popular cliche in contemporary public discourse holds that we live in a time of increasing uncertainty; that the next catastrophe is perpetually imminent and yet increasingly beyond our capacity to foresee. The future, in short, is becoming much more difficult to control. One consequence of this increasingly widespread understanding of the future is that societies have turned to anticipatory governance strategies based on such concepts as risk management, the precautionary principle, and pre-emption to manage human affairs. This book takes an in-depth look at this trend by using the example of the 'pre-emptive security' strategies deployed in the post-9/11 War on Terror to develop a critical understanding of how the proliferation of such anticipatory governance strategies affects the way political power is organized and exercised. The book also makes a wider case for taking issues of time and the future more seriously in the study of contemporary global politics in particular and the social world more generally.

Inhabitable Infrastructures: Science fiction or urban future?, the follow up to Food City and Smartcities and Eco-Warriors, from one of the world's leading urban design and architectural thinkers, explores the potential of climate change-related multi-use infrastructures that address the fundamental human requirements to protect, to provide and to participate. The stimulus for the infrastructures derives from postulated scenarios and processes gleaned from science fiction and futurology as well as the current body of scientific knowledge regarding changing environmental impacts on cities. Science fiction is interdisciplinary by nature, aggregates the past and present, and evaluates both lay opinions and professional strategies in an attempt to develop foresight and to map possible futures. The research culminates in the creation of innovative multi-use infrastructures and integrated self-sustaining support systems that meet the challenges posed through climate change and overpopulation, and the reciprocal benefits of simultaneously addressing the threat and the shaping of cities. J. G. Ballard has written that the psychological realm of science fiction is most valuable in its predictive function, and in projecting emotions into the future. The knowledge from the book is widely transferable, constituting both solutions and speculative visions of future urban environments. The book is indispensable reading for professionals and students in the fields of urban design, architecture, engineering and environmental socio-politics.

Thinking about the future is essential for almost all organizations and societies. States, corporations, universities, cities, NGOs and individuals believe they cannot miss the future. But what exactly is the future? It remains a mystery perhaps the greatest mystery, especially because futures are unpredictable and often unknowable, the outcome of many factors, known and unknown. The future is rarely a simple extrapolation from the present. In this important book, John Urry seeks to capture the many efforts that have been made to anticipate, visualize and elaborate the future. This includes examining the methods used to model the future, from those of the RAND Corporation to imagined future worlds in philosophy, literature, art, film, TV and computer games. He shows that futures are often contested and saturated with different interests, especially in relation to future generations. He also shows how analyses of social institutions, practices and lives should be central to examining potential futures, and issues such as who owns the future. The future seems to be characterized by 'wicked problems'. There are multiple 'causes' and 'solutions', long-term lock-ins and complex interdependencies, and different social groups have radically different frames for understanding what is at stake. Urry explores these issues through case-studies of 3D printing and the future of manufacturing, mobilities in the city, and the futures of energy and climate change.

In Uncertainty by Design Limor Samimian-Darash presents cases of the use of scenario technology in the fields of security and emergency preparedness, energy, and health by analyzing scenario narratives and practices at the National Emergency Management Authority in Israel, the World Health Organization's Regional Office for Europe, and the World Energy Council. Humankind has long struggled with the uncertainty of the future, with how to foresee the future, imagine alternatives, or prepare for and guard against undesirable eventualities. Scenario-or scenario planning-emerged in recent decades to become a widespread means through which states, large corporations, and local organizations imagine and prepare for the future. The scenario technology cases examined in Uncertainty by Design provide a useful lens through which to view contemporary efforts to engage in an overall journey of discovering the future, along with the modality of governing involved in these endeavors to face future uncertainties. Collectively, they enable us to understand in depth how scenarios express a new governing modality.

This book is intended for introductory courses in SIA within sociology, social policy, human geography and political science at postgraduate level. Specialist postgraduate and professional courses in policy- orientated social research and in social and general impact assessment.

Few books have attempted to contextualize the importance of video game play with a critical social, cultural and political perspective that raises the question of the significance of work, pleasure, fantasy and play in the modern world. The study of why video game play is "fun" has often been relegated to psychology, or the disciplines of cultural anthropology, literary and media studies, communications and other assorted humanistic and social science disciplines. In Utopic Dreams and Apocalyptic Fantasies, Talmadge Wright, David Embrick and Andras Lukacs invites us to move further and consider questions on appropriate methods of researching games, understanding the carnival quality of modern life, the role of marketing in altering game narratives, and the role of fantasy and desire in modern video game play. Embracing an approach that combines a cultural and/or critical studies approach with a sociological understanding of this new media moves the debate beyond simple media effects, moral panics, and industry boosterism to one of asking critical questions, what does modern video game play "mean," what questions should we be asking, and what can sociological research contribute to answering these questions. This collection includes works which use textual analysis, audience based research, symbolic interactionism, as well as political economic and psychoanalytic perspectives to illuminate areas of inquiry that preserves the pleasure of modern play while asking tough questions about what such pleasure means in a world divided by political, economic, cultural and social inequalities.

Should we welcome the end of humanity? In this blistering book about the history of an idea, one of our leading critics draws on his dazzling range and calls our attention to a seemingly inconceivable topic that is being seriously discussed: that the end of humanity's reign on earth is imminent, and that we should welcome it. Kirsch journeys through literature, philosophy, science, and popular culture, to identify two strands of thinking: Anthropocene antihumanism says that our climate destruction has doomed humanity and we should welcome our extinction, while Transhumanism believes that genetic engineering and artificial intelligence will lead to new forms of life superior to humans. Kirsch's introduction of thinkers and writers from Roger Hallam to Jane Bennett, David Benatar to Nick Bostrom, Patricia MacCormack to Ray Kurzweil, Ian McEwan to Richard Powers, will make you see the current moment in a new light. The revolt against humanity has already spread beyond the fringes of the intellectual world, and it can transform politics and society in profound ways-if it hasn't already.

Surviving the Future is a story drawn from the fertile ground of the late David Fleming's extraordinary Lean Logic: A Dictionary for the Future and How to Survive It. That hardback consists of four hundred and four interlinked dictionary entries, inviting readers to choose their own path through its radical vision. Recognizing that Lean Logic's sheer size and unusual structure can be daunting, Fleming's long-time collaborator Shaun Chamberlin has selected and edited one of these potential narratives to create Surviving the Future. The content, rare insights, and uniquely enjoyable writing style remain Fleming's, but are presented here at a more accessible paperback-length and in conventional read-it-front-to-back format. The subtitle-Culture, Carnival and Capital in the Aftermath of the Market Economy-hints at Fleming's vision. He believed that the market economy will not survive its inherent flaws beyond the early decades of this century, and that its failure will bring great challenges, but he did not dwell on this: "We know what we need to do. We need to build the sequel, to draw on inspiration which has lain dormant, like the seed beneath the snow." Surviving the Future lays out a compelling and powerfully different new economics for a post-growth world. One that relies not on taut competitiveness and eternally increasing productivity-"putting the grim into reality"-but on the play, humor, conversation, and reciprocal obligations of a rich culture. Building on a remarkable breadth of intellectual and cultural heritage-from Keynes to Kumar, Homer to Huxley, Mumford to MacIntyre, Scruton to Shiva, Shakespeare to Schumacher-Fleming describes a world in which, as he says, "there will be time for music." This is the world that many of us want to live in, yet we are told it is idealistic and unrealistic. With an evident mastery of both economic theory and historical precedent, Fleming shows that it is not only desirable, but actually the only system with a realistic claim to longevity. With friendliness, humor, and charm, Surviving the Future plucks this vision out of our daydreams and shows us how to make it real.

Five leaders of business, television, education, government, and labor address themselves in this book to the problems concerning their fields and consequently concerning the entire American citizenry. With an eye on the past history of the United States, these men discuss the various problems of the present and future and how we are to cope with them using the lessons and values of the past, as well as recognizing new concepts and ideas that have arisen. Karl R. Bopp, former President of the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia, concerns him self with the problem of eliminating unemployment of men and capital without resorting to total economic planning. Frank Stanton, former President of the Columbia Broadcasting System, asks who shall determine what the people see on television and whether there is an alternative to "the public verdict" of applause or rejection. Earl J. McGrath, former U. S. Commissioner of Higher Education, raises questions relating to the performance of students and teachers at all levels of our educational establishment. Who should go to college? What differences in curricula should be encouraged? What practices and conditions will produce those intellectual and moral qualities we desire in our citizenry? Milton Katz, former Director of International Legal Studies at Harvard University, discusses the problem of increasing public understanding of the government's conduct of foreign affairs. What is the proper "mix" of professionally trained public servants and talented political "transients"? How can public antipathy to expanding "bureaucracy" be overcome in the interest of raising the quality of our foreign affairs personnel. George W. Taylor, Professor of Industry at the University of Pennsylvania and a member of President Kennedy's Advisory Committee on Labor Management Relations, notes that the "creative responses" required to maintain the nation's economic equilibrium run "deeply against the grain of our traditional thinking." How shall we respond to conflicts of private interests (labor and management) that pose threats to, or actually damage, the general welfare? Do we need institutional arrangements to defend the public interest when great economic powers collide, and, if so, what should be the role of government in these arrangements? These five men do not purport to know all of the answers to the great issues of our society. Implicit in their discussions is an invitation to the reader to enter into a dialogue with them, to examine his or her own ideas while scrutinizing theirs, to seek out further data, to confirm, to refute, or to modify. The State of the Nation: Retrospect and Prospect is an invaluable book for those interested in the problems of society. It is a summons to Americans to realize their responsibilities and privileges as citizens of a democracy in the permanent pursuit of perfection.