Across America, especially in the aftermath of 9/11, parents rely on K12 schooling to prepare their children for the shocks, the perils, and especially the bright possibilities that are part of our warp-speed future. A new generation of school staffers is forging a fresh learning partnership with youngsters for whom creative computer-based schooling is as natural as breathing. Together, these staffers and students seek empowering ways to draw on futuristics, a pedagogy that makes the most of the study of tomorrow. Anticipate the School You Want offers pragmatic program ideas, along with many operational hints. Additionally, it shares a blueprint for developing the nation's first high school of the future and a design for conducting a biannual Futures Fair. America urgently needs an educational pathway for developing long-range forecasters, and Shostak provides recommendations for reaching that pathway. Strengthened by numerous annotated citations for articles, books, and Web sites, the book enables school staffers to draw on futuristics as they have always wanted to--ably, confidently, and with confidence that it makes a desirable, lasting difference.

El Imperativo Espiritual muestra que, al contrario de lo que piensa la mayoria de la gente, la historia tiene orden, direccion y sentido y el futuro es tan predecible como el tiempo de hoy.

This book is a full-scale exposition of Charles Manski's new methodology for analyzing empirical questions in the social sciences. He recommends that researchers first ask what can be learned from data alone, and then ask what can be learned when data are combined with credible weak assumptions. Inferences predicated on weak assumptions, he argues, can achieve wide consensus, while ones that require strong assumptions almost inevitably are subject to sharp disagreements.

Building on the foundation laid in the author's "Identification Problems in the Social Sciences" (Harvard, 1995), the book's fifteen chapters are organized in three parts. Part I studies prediction with missing or otherwise incomplete data. Part II concerns the analysis of treatment response, which aims to predict outcomes when alternative treatment rules are applied to a population. Part III studies prediction of choice behavior.

Each chapter juxtaposes developments of methodology with empirical or numerical illustrations. The book employs a simple notation and mathematical apparatus, using only basic elements of probability theory.

World authority on astrophysics, Sir Martin Rees, takes us on a journey through all the things which could wipe out mankind in the near future. From asteroids to disease to scientific discoveries gone wrong (from nanobots to the large Hadron collider) these are scenarios from disaster movies, analysed with a serious scientific eye. Some of these things definitely won't happen, some genuinely might - this is one book you won't be able to put down and which you'll never forget.

Cyberspace and cybertechnology have impacted on every aspect of our lives. Western society, culture, politics and economics are now all intricately bound with cyberspace. Living With Cyberspace brings together the leading cyber-theorists of North America, Britain and Australia to map the present and the future of cyberspace.Presenting a guidebook to our new world, both the theory and the practice, the book covers subjects as diverse as androids, biotech, electronic commerce, the acceleration of everyday life, access to information, the alliance between the military and the entertainment industries, feminism, democratic practice and human consciousness itself.Together, the essays--divided into separately introduced sections on society, culture, politics and economics--present a systematic and state-of-the-art overview of technology and society in the 21st Century.Contributors: John Armitage, Verena Andermatt Conley, James Der Derian, William H. Dutton, Phil Graham, Tim Jordan, Wan-Ying Ling, David Lyon, Ian Miles, Joanne Roberts, Saskia Sassen, Cathryn Vasseleu, McKenzie Wark, Frank Webster

"Fitz is a well-established scholar whose work on Lispector is highly respected, and this is a well-focused and very knowledgeable study. One of the things I particularly like about this book is that it makes a case for reading Lispector in the light of poststructuralist theory without overwhelming the reader." --Debra A. Castillo, Professor of Romance Studies and Director of Latin American Studies Program, Cornell University Driven by an unfulfilled desire for the unattainable, ultimately indefinable Other, the protagonists of the novels and stories of acclaimed Brazilian writer Clarice Lispector exemplify and humanize many of the issues central to poststructuralist thought, from the nature of language, truth, and meaning to the unstable relationships between language, being, and reality. In this book, Earl Fitz demonstrates that, in turn, poststructuralism offers important and revealing insights into all aspects of Lispector's writing, including her style, sense of structure, characters, themes, and socio-political conscience. Fitz draws on Lispector's entire oeuvre--novels, stories, cronicas, and children's literature--to argue that her writing consistently reflects the basic tenets of poststructuralist theory. He shows how Lispector's characters struggle over and humanize poststructuralist dilemmas and how their essential sense of being is deeply dependent on a shifting, and typically transgressive, sense of desire and sexuality.

Will humanity survive the coming century? Are we threatened by a demographic time-bomb? Will there be food for all? Can we eliminate poverty? Are we, in our cities, heading for a kind of apartheid between the affluent and the socially excluded? Will new information technologies increase the gap between rich and poor - or, on the contrary, open up opportunities for lifelong distance education for all? Are women going to win their legitimate place in society? Is it true that many languages are in danger of extinction? How can we forestall global warming and the onward march of the world's deserts? Will there be wars over access to shrinking supplies of water? What are the prospects of running out of affordable oil and gas; and can we harness solar energy? This book looks at the major challenges of the future. Packed with the latest information and scientific understandings, it traverses a rich tapestry of crucial issues, threats and choices confronting humanity and proposes a new start based on four broad contracts: social, natural, cultural and ethical. In a world where problems are taking on increasingly global dimensions, we must come up with global solutions. We need to turn a culture of violence into a culture of peace. The choice is stark: either a 21st century with a human face or the grimacing mask of a 'Brave New World'.

"Charging Ahead" foretells the world's next great energy transformation: the shift to clean, renewable energy sources. It shows how renewable energy, energy efficiency, and electric vehicles, when used together, can give us back a clean environment and create a healthy, sustainable economy. In chronicling this extraordinary technological revolution, John J. Berger provides a fascinating look at the new industries that will make it possible, and the trillion-dollar benefits Americans can enjoy by choosing pollution-free energy and transportation.

What methodological tools have been most useful in doing evaluation? What are some of the new methodologies that are being used and developed? Will the types of things evaluated expand from programs, personnel, and products to foreign aid, medical technology, environmental interventions, and World Bank loan programs? What will evaluation be like in the 21st century? These impressive evaluators from around the globe explore how evaluation has come to be what it is today and what the professional evaluation landscape will be like in the future. They examine the following:

-What makes evaluation different from other disciplines?

-The links and differences between evaluation and auditing professions?

-Which activities have priority in evaluation, under what circumstances, and for what purposes?

-New methodological approaches to doing evaluation.

-The issues of advocacy versus truth in evaluation and between evaluating programs versus empowering people to evaluate their own programs.

Evaluation for the 21st Century features thoughtfully written introductions to each of the main sections that provide a context and synthesis of the various evaluators? chapters. After reading this groundbreaking book, researchers and practitioners will be able to recognize these new developments in evaluation as they encounter them, place them in context, and incorporate them into their own evaluation professions and practices.

A stunning achievement, Evaluation for the 21st Century is for all professionals and practitioners in evaluation, management, public administration, sociology, psychology, education research, public health, and nursing.

A striking exmination of the harsh relities of being human, Robert Frey's Our Future in Light of Twentieth-Century Evil perceptively examines such significant foundations of American culture as religion, science, education and political experession i light fo the European Holocaust. His work offers poignant and collective re-direction for each of these areas of life, in light of the moral and social evil that have stained our century. Non-sectarian and multidisciplinary in its approach, this work offers bridge buidingg solutions of conceptual and practical understanding across epistemic and ideational divides. Historically and scientifically gorunded, Our Future in Light of Twentieth-Century Evil poses and explores difficult, probing questions about our nature, our divisions, our beliefs and our basis for hope. Frey suggests that, "for our collectives future to have meaning beyond privatized economic or religious refuge, talk must cohere into clear-minded visions and pathways illuminated by compassion, informed tolerance, sacrifice, humility and obligation directed toward the Earth, our fellow human beings, and generations unborn." He continues, "Hope, history and human culture emanate from each one of us. The results in our world are our own. Therein is our genuine power." Our Future in Light of Twentieth-Century Evil synthesizes disparate concepts in a manner accessible to all thoughtful people. A definite "must have" for every library.

On 1 July 1997 the red flag with five yellow stars of the People's Republic of China will be hoisted over Government House in Hong Kong, replacing the Union Jack and symbolizing the culmination of a profound political transition. The United Kingdom, which has governed the colony since 1841, will have transferred sovereignty and administrative responsibility over Hong Kong to mainland China's Communist party. Hong Kong is in for a rocky road in the years ahead. Future treatment of Hong Kong will be caught up in the political competition for control of China. Victims of that competition will include the free press, academic freedom, open and fair elections, and some portion of market freedom. Hong Kong will not be as tightly controlled as the rest of China, but neither will it be the free and vivacious place it has been for the past half century. The political and economic landscape will be filled with uncertainty, cronyism, lost freedoms, and more corruption than has been known in the recent past. It is a bleak picture indeed. Such is the dire prophecy of Bruce Bueno de Mesquita, David Newman, and Alvin Rabushka, whose Red Flag over Hong Kong casts a cold eye on the future prospects of "the world's best example of the free-market economy, working as textbooks say it should". Applying to that unknown future a dynamic model of decision making that rests on the collection of data from a wide range of expert observers, the authors boldly seek to quantify human behavior and so derive a precise and reliable early forecast of Hong Kong's destiny at the hands of its communist masters.

The essays in this collection, written by some of the leading scholars in Popular Culture Studies, turn the page on the new millennium to see what are the directions of approach and the opportunities to be gained in recognition of the compelling need for studies in everyday cultures.

Profound ideas from remarkably original couple. --Future Survey Spanning a period of 28 years, this collection of essays by renowned futurist scholars Elise and Kenneth Boulding presents a thoughtful exploration of past, present--and possible--world development. The juxtaposition of works by both authors fosters a deeper understanding of their individual views while allowing the reader to evaluate the element of mutual influence. Offering a wide range of political, economic, and social perspectives on the global future, the volume's overarching theme is clear: The world is in dire need of mending. Conveying the passionate conviction of its contributors, this compelling set of essays stands as a tribute to Kenneth Boulding's life, his work, and his dedication to the study of the future as more than an intellectual curiosity--as something essential to the survival of mankind itself. Students and professors of political science, sociology, and economics will appreciate this thought-provoking volume. "The authors display their passionate concern with the future, a concern shown partly in their joint interest in peace projects. They write lucidly and gracefully making these some of the most attractive and stimulating contributions to our thinking about the future." --Krishan Kumar in Political Studies

Crucial Questions About the Future presents readers concerned about the long-range future and their place in it with a series of tough but necessary questions and, refreshingly, offers no pat answers. Instead, what is offered is a structured and reason-bound exploration of the complexities of modern life with which the reader, or the future-studies inclined academic, can provide his own answers to these eternal and critical questions. Contents: The Future of Human Civilization; What Is Most Important of All?; Why Do We Act In Ways That Hurt Our Future?; What Will Our Actual Future Turn Out To Be?; How Can We Achieve a Satisfactory Future?; Preventing the Worst Catastrophes; Intelligent Life in the Universe: What Role Will It Play In Our Future?; From Which Aspects of Reality Can We Gain Meaning and Purpose?; How Can Each Person Contribute?

Virtual worlds have exploded out of online game culture and now capture the attention of millions of ordinary people: husbands, wives, fathers, mothers, workers, retirees. Devoting dozens of hours each week to massively multiplayer virtual reality environments (like "World of Warcraft "and "Second Life"), these millions are the start of an exodus into the refuge of fantasy, where they experience life under a new social, political, and economic order built around "fun." Given the choice between a fantasy world and the real world, how many of us would choose reality? "Exodus to the Virtual World" explains the growing migration into virtual reality, and how it will change the way we live--both in fantasy worlds and in the real one.

For centuries, scientists have strived to predict the future. But to what extent have they succeeded? Can past events-Hurricane Katrina, the Internet stock bubble, the SARS outbreak-help us understand what will happen next? Will scientists ever really be able to forecast catastrophes, or will we always be at the mercy of Mother Nature, waiting for the next storm, epidemic, or economic crash to thunder through our lives? In "The Future of Everything," David Orrell looks back at the history of forecasting, from the time of the oracle at Delphi to the rise of astrology to the advent of the TV weather report, showing us how scientists (and some charlatans) predicted the future. How can today's scientists claim to anticipate future weather events when even thee-day forecasts prove a serious challenge? How can we predict and control epidemics? Can we accurately foresee our financial future? Or will we only find out about tomorrow when tomorrow arrives?

For Akiva Jaap Vroman "a day in the infinite past" is nonsense. All the days that have elapsed belong to a past of countable days; they started on a first day a finite number of days ago. Time began this first day. It follows that an eternal past does not exist. Vroman bases his reasoning on a simple mathematical law: an infinite quantity remains the same infinite quantity if a finite quantity, however large, is subtracted from it. "On God, Space, and Time" devotes itself to this proof. "On God, Space, and Time" is rooted in the epistemological thinking of Immanuel Kant and Jean Piaget and the law of Leucippus, and draws from the somewhat disparate fields of psychology, physiology, mathematics, and physics. Vroman discusses the modern vindication of the existence of the Creator using ontological arguments, which observe the cosmos solely through our sense-perceptions and the world of space and matter. He balances this worldview with a discussion of brain chemistry and physiology in "God, Mind, and Body" showing that the world of space and matter is nothing but an interpretation made by our working mind. Vroman also describes the Spanish-based Jewish philosophers of the Middle Ages who came close to solving the Genesis-Creation contradiction, which cannot be reconciled through the external world of Greek philosophy. As we travel through time with Vroman, who ranges easily and poetically over important concepts and influential thinkers, we encounter a variety of subjects: Spinoza's new definition of God and the authority of reason in the age of Descartes, Leibniz, and Newton; Jewish idealists, such as Nachman Krochmal, Solomon L. Steinman, Solomon Formstecher, and Samuel Hirsch; the concept of space-time; and Johann Gottlieb Fichte, Arthur Schopenhauer, Max Wentscher, and Charles Darwin. He presents engaging, worthwhile discussions of futurology; the astrological world of sub-lunar events; religious eschatology, specifically the Jewish and Christian Messiah; apocalyptic revelation in psychological science, the future of the universe, God and moral virtue, the medical approach to the question of life and death, and finally, personal thoughts on religious worship and service based on reason and moral sense. "On God, Space, and Time"a valuable historical synthesis of Western thought on man's vision of God, and consequently reality. This volume will interest many, particularly those intrigued by philosophy, religion, and futurology.

Zombies are everywhere these days. We are consuming zombies as much as they are said to be consuming us in mediated apocalyptic scenarios on popular television shows, video game franchises and movies. The "zombie industry" generates billions a year through media texts and other cultural manifestations (zombie races and zombie-themed parks, to name a few). Zombies, like vampires, werewolves, witches and wizards, have become both big dollars for cultural producers and the subject of audience fascination and fetishization. With popular television shows such as AMC's The Walking Dead (based on the popular graphic novel) and movie franchises such as the ones pioneered by George Romero, global fascination with zombies does not show signs of diminishing. In The Thinking Dead: What the Zombie Apocalypse Means, edited by Murali Balaji, scholars ask why our culture has becomes so fascinated by the zombie apocalypse. Essays address this question from a range of theoretical perspectives that tie our consumption of zombies to larger narratives of race, gender, sexuality, politics, economics and the end of the world. Thinking Dead brings together an array of media and cultural studies scholars whose contributions to understanding our obsession with zombies will far outlast the current trends of zombie popularity.

By 2050 the world will be faced with the enormous challenge of feeding 9 billion people despite being affected by climate change, rising energy costs and pressure on food growing land and other major resources. How will the world produce 70% more food by 2050 to feed a projected extra 2.3 billion people? What will be the impact of food shortages and high prices on areas in crisis such as sub-Sahara Africa? Where will future production growth come from? And how do we balance the need for environmental protection with sustainable agricultural production methods? This is the first text to present a scholarly, balanced approach to the contentious area of food production and supply up to 2050 - offering a readable and well-informed account which tackles the global food situation in all its totality, from agricultural production, technological advance, dietary concerns, population changes, income trends, environmental issues, government food and agriculture policy, trade, financial markets, macroeconomics and food security. Highly accessible and written by a specialist author with experience as an agricultural analyst, policy advisor and researcher, "Global Food Futures" synthesises the key issues in one volume.

A global pandemic finds millions swarming across the U.S. border. Major American cities are leveled by black-market nukes. China's growing civil unrest ignites a global showdown. Pakistan's collapse leads to a hunt for its nuclear weapons. What if the worst that could happen actually happens? How will we respond? Are we prepared?
These are the questions that Andrew F. Krepinevich asks--and answers--in this timely and often chilling book. As a military expert and consultant, Krepinevich must think the unthinkable based on the latest intelligence and geopolitical trends--and devise a response in the event our worst nightmares become reality.
As riveting as a thriller, ""7 Deadly Scenarios reveals the forces--both overt and covert--that are in play; the real ambitions of world powers, terrorist groups, and rogue states; and the actions and counteractions both our enemies and our allies can be expected to take--and what we must do to prepare before it's too late.
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The classic bestselling work from Britain’s pre-eminent management thinker

Are you on the way to Davy’s bar?

When is the moment to take the Sigmoid curve?

Do you know the Doughnut Principle?

What is a Chinese contract?

The changes which Charles Handy foresaw in The Age of Unreason are happening now. Endless growth makes for a candyfloss economy, and capitalism must be its own sternest critic. In this extraordinary, life-affirming book, Charles Handy reaches for a philosophy beyond the impersonal mechanics of business organisations, beyond material choices. He presents a powerful alternative vision, where life and work are regrounded in a natural sense of continuity, connection and purposeful direction. We are now a world of shareholders, but everyone has a stake in the future. With warmth, wit and the most challenging insights, Charles Handy seeks to turn paradox into real progress.

For Marc Auge, best-selling author of Non-Places, the prevailing idea of "the Future" rests on our present fears of the contemporary world. It is to the future that we look for redemption and progress; but it is also where we project our personal and apocalyptic anxieties. By questioning notions of certainty, truth, and totality, Auge finds ways to separate the future from our eternal, terrified present and liberates the mind to allow it to conceptualize our possible futures afresh.

What are the jobs of the future? How many will there be? And who will have them? We might imagine—and hope—that today's industrial revolution will unfold like the last: even as some jobs are eliminated, more will be created to deal with the new innovations of a new era. In Rise of the Robots, Silicon Valley entrepreneur Martin Ford argues that this is absolutely not the case.

As technology continues to accelerate and machines begin taking care of themselves, fewer people will be necessary. Artificial intelligence is already well on its way to making “good jobs” obsolete: many paralegals, journalists, office workers, and even computer programmers are poised to be replaced by robots and smart software. As progress continues, blue and white collar jobs alike will evaporate, squeezing working- and middle-class families ever further. At the same time, households are under assault from exploding costs, especially from the two major industries—education and health care—that, so far, have not been transformed by information technology. The result could well be massive unemployment and inequality as well as the implosion of the consumer economy itself.

In Rise of the Robots, Ford details what machine intelligence and robotics can accomplish, and implores employers, scholars, and policy makers alike to face the implications. The past solutions to technological disruption, especially more training and education, aren't going to work, and we must decide, now, whether the future will see broad-based prosperity or catastrophic levels of inequality and economic insecurity. Rise of the Robots is essential reading for anyone who wants to understand what accelerating technology means for their own economic prospects—not to mention those of their children—as well as for society as a whole.

Humankind has always striven to catch a glimpse of the future. Egyptian priests, Babylonian astrologers, Greek oracles and medieval magicians stared at the sky and tried to foresee the coming catastrophes, relying on certain distributions of the stars. Contemporary fantasists construct models of the future through the pages of their novels and astonish readers with unbelievable pictures of a technocratic society where the very human personality has transformed under the influence of technological advance. However, most of all the previous attempts to foresee the future has remained in the framework of banal superstition or ordinary creative writing. At the same time, the principal question does not cease to be of current interest. Is scientific forecasting of the near and distant future possible? The authors of this book are convinced that it is. On the basis of rigorous methodology, mathematicians, physicians, philosophers and historians demonstrate how the world will look in coming decades and centuries and try to find out if the future can be determined. Along with general philosophical analysis, mathematical modeling is used in order to give the reader a clear and objective vision of the future. The book will be useful for everyone who takes care of his own destiny and the destiny of the next generations.