SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER The creator of the Gaia hypothesis and the greatest environmental thinker of our time has produced an astounding new theory about the future of life on Earth. James Lovelock argues that the anthropocene - the age in which humans acquired planetary-scale technologies - is, after three centuries, coming to an end. A new age - the novacene - has already begun. New beings will emerge from existing artificial intelligence systems. They will think 10,000 times faster than we do and will regard us as we now regard plants. The cruel, violent machine takeover imagined by sci-fi writers will not happen: these hyper-intelligent beings will be as dependent on the health of the planet as we are. They will need the planetary cooling system of Gaia to defend from the increasing heat of the sun. Gaia depends on organic life. We will be partners in this project. It is crucial, Lovelock argues, that the intelligence of Earth survives and prospers. We are at present the only beings capable of understanding the cosmos, but he speculates that the novacene could be the beginning of a process that will see intelligence suffusing the entire cosmos. At the age 100, Lovelock has produced the most compelling work of his life.

The challenges we face today are growing conspicuously broad in scale and complex in nature. Human Survivability Studies is a new transdisciplinary field born from the growing awareness of the urgent need to tackle the large-scale environmental and social issues at crisis point in the world today. Based at Kyoto University, the recently established Graduate School of Advanced Integrated Studies in Human Survivability is seeking to develop leaders able to challenge global problems on a number of fronts. Each of the twenty chapters in this volume, written by academics from the Graduate School, looks at critical issues facing humanity from a different perspective, discussing new ideas and scientific methods that will form the basis of human survivability. The aim here is to outline the framework behind the ideas, methodology, and practice of this new scientific paradigm that incorporates knowledge from both the social and natural sciences.

A SUNDAY TIMES BOOK OF THE YEAR The No.1 bestselling author of The Future of the Mind brings us a stunning new vision of our future in space Human civilization is on the verge of living beyond Earth. But how will it happen? World-renowned physicist Michio Kaku takes us on a journey to the future, introducing the mind-boggling developments in robotics, nanotechnology and biotechnology that will one day enable us to make our homes among the stars. 'With admirable clarity and ease, Kaku explains how we might colonize not only Mars but some of the rocky moons of the gas giants Jupiter and Saturn . . . The book has an infectious, can-do enthusiasm' Steven Poole, The Wall Street Journal 'Kaku grounds his readers in science happening right now, while throwing open the windows to imagine where it might lead in a thousand years' Adam Frank, The New York Times Book Review 'Kaku is an international treasure and a man of infectious enthusiasm' The Times

Space elevators. Internet-enabled contact lenses. Cars that fly by floating on magnetic fields. This is the stuff of science fiction--it's also daily life in the year 2100.
Renowned theoretical physicist Michio Kaku details the developments in computer technology, artificial intelligence, medicine, space travel, and more, that are poised to happen over the next hundred years. He also considers how these inventions will affect the world economy, addressing the key questions: Who will have jobs? Which nations will prosper? Kaku interviews three hundred of the world's top scientists--working in their labs on astonishing prototypes. He also takes into account the rigorous scientific principles that regulate how quickly, how safely, and how far technologies can advance. In "Physics of the Future, "Kaku forecasts a century of earthshaking advances in technology that could make even the last centuries' leaps and bounds seem insignificant.

Cheat death-or at least delay it-with this accessible look into the quest for immortality, and what it means for human civilization. Are humans close to living forever? With advances in medicine and new therapies that prolong life expectancy, we are on track to make aging ever more manageable. This first book in the exciting new Alice in Futureland series explores both the science and cultural impulse behind extending life, and the numerous ways the quest for eternity forces us to reevaluate what it means to be human. Some experts believe that we haven't fully realized our true human potential, and we are about to embark on an extraordinary evolutionary shift. Hacking Immortality answers all your burning questions, including: -Can humans cheat death? -What is your grim age? -Will 100 be the new 40? -Will we become software? As reality suddenly catches up to science fiction, Hacking Immortality gives the truth on the state of humanity-and all its possible futures.

Projections of Education Statistics to 2028 provides projections for key education statistics. It includes statistics on topics such as enrollment, graduates, teachers, expenditures in elementary and secondary schools, and expenditures of degree-granting institutions. In addition to projections at the national level, the report includes projections of public elementary and secondary school enrollment and public high school graduates to the year 2028 at the state level. The projections in this publication were produced by the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) to provide researchers, policy analysts, and others with state-level projections developed using a consistent methodology.

Sustainable and vibrant communities of the future are a result of proper planning. Shaping our Future: Community Planning Basics for Happier, Healthier, and More Sustainable Cities offers students and engaged citizens an introduction to the field of community planning. It covers a broad range of foundational topics needed by students to become effective city and community planners. Opening chapters provide an understanding of planning history, major actors, and theories. Tools and techniques of planning are presented subsequently along with chapters dedicated to specializations in planning such as housing and community development, transportation planning, land use planning, environmental planning, urban design, historic preservation, economic development, and disaster preparedness and mitigation. Planning ethics, public participation in the planning process, sustainable development, and the advent of big data in planning are also discussed, with a concluding chapter that showcases examples of planning overseas. Throughout, introductions, key terms, and end-of-chapter questions provide students with critical context and opportunities to reinforce key learnings. Planning projects and exercises challenge students to apply what they learn and build practical knowledge for real-world situations.

From the beginning of time, humans have been driven by both a fear of the unknown and a curiosity to know. We have always yearned to know what lies ahead, whether threat or safety, scarcity or abundance. Throughout human history, our forebears tried to create certainty in the unknown, by seeking to influence outcomes with sacrifices to gods, preparing for the unexpected with advice from oracles, and by reading the stars through astrology. As scientific methods improve and computer technology develops we become ever more confident of our capacity to predict and quantify the future by accumulating and interpreting patterns form the past, yet the truth is there is still no certainty to be had. In this Very Short Introduction Jennifer Gidley considers some of our most burning questions: What is "the future "?; Is the future a time yet to come?; Or is it a utopian place?; Does the future have a history?; Is there only one future or are there many possible futures? She asks if the future can ever be truly predicted or if we create our own futures - both hoped for and feared - by our thoughts, feelings, and actions, and concludes by analysing how we can learn to study the future. ABOUT THE SERIES: The Very Short Introductions series from Oxford University Press contains hundreds of titles in almost every subject area. These pocket-sized books are the perfect way to get ahead in a new subject quickly. Our expert authors combine facts, analysis, perspective, new ideas, and enthusiasm to make interesting and challenging topics highly readable.