Social forecasting, future studies Books
University of California Press Meat Planet Artificial Flesh and the Future of
Book SynopsisIn 2013, a Dutch scientist unveiled the world's first laboratory-created hamburger. Since then,the idea of producing meat, not from live animals but from carefully cultured tissues, has spread like wildfire through the media. Meanwhile,cultured meat researchers race against population growth and climate change in an effort to make sustainable protein.Meat Planet explores the quest to generate meat in the laba substance sometimes called cultured meatand asks what it means to imagine that this is the future of food. Neither an advocate nor a critic of cultured meat, Benjamin Aldes Wurgaft spentfive years researching the phenomenon. InMeat Planet, hereveals how debates about lab-grown meat reach beyond debates about food, examining the links between appetite, growth, and capitalism. Could satiating the growing appetite for meat actually lead to our undoing? Are we simply using one technology to undo the damage caused by another? Like all problems in our food system, the meat problem is not merely a problem of production. It is intrinsically social and political, and it demands that we examine questions of justice and desirable modes of living in a shared and finite world. Benjamin Wurgaft tells a story that could utterly transform the way we think of animals, the way we relate to farmland, the way we use water, and the way we think about population and our fragile ecosystem's capacity to sustain life. He argues that even if cultured meat does not succeed, it functionsmuch like science fictionas a crucial mirror that we can hold up to our contemporary fleshy dysfunctions.
£18.90
John Wiley and Sons Ltd After the Car
Book SynopsisLooks at changes in technology, policy, economy and society, and makes an argument for a future where, by necessity, the car system will be re-designed and re-engineered. This book suggests that there are some hugely bleak dilemmas facing the twenty first century. It lays out what the authors' consider to be possible 'post-car' future scenarios.Trade Review"Dennis and Urry show us how to do social science: how to move effortlessly between the macro and the micro,how to integrate problem spaces we once thought incommensurate, how to understand how we got to where we are and where we might be going."Journal of Sociology "Dennis and Urry exhibit a refreshing understanding of the sheer inefficiency and inconvenience of cars."Lynsey Hanley, The Guardian "One great aspect of this book is that it manages to build some possible and realistic view of the future without neglecting its unpredictability. After the Car is a very inspiring book that we would recommend to all people interested in the future of transportation systems – especially those convinced by the importance of carfree perspectives in building it."Carbusters "One of the toughest things to do is to anticipate discontinuity, to envisage a world - a life - beyond the car. The authors practice this art of the impossible in a fascinating way, opening up the social and sociological imagination for alternative paths of modernization."Ulrich Beck, University of Munich "A persuasive and readable summary of why motoring as we know it is doomed. The authors systematically chart the new technologies, oil shortages, environmental and other pressures changing the way we travel and the world we live in. If you want to know what the future might look like, this book is for you. Jeremy Clarkson is an endangered species!"Steven Joseph, Executive Director, Campaign for Better Transport "After the Car is a useful contribution to the debate about the role of the car which poses some interesting questions about its future."Tony Bosworth, Friends of the EarthTable of ContentsPreface vi 1 Changing Climates 1 2 The Century of the Car 27 3 Systems 47 4 Technologies 62 5 Organizations 93 6 Models 109 7 Scenarios 131 Notes 165 Index 203
£45.00
University of British Columbia Press Shaping the Future on Haida Gwaii
Book SynopsisCountering colonial ideas about Indigenous peoples being frozen in time and without a future, this provocative book explores the ways in which members of the Haida Nation are shaping myriad possible futures to address the dilemmas that come with life under settler colonialism.Trade Review[Shaping the Future] is a thought-provoking read, offering many important table-turning insights relevant to reconciliation and understanding any society’s resiliency through times of economic, political, and environmental uncertainties. -- Gillian Crowther * Canadian Journal of Native Studies *Weiss’s respect and relationships with the residents of Gaw and his commitment to ethical, reciprocal, and meaningful research comes through in this intriguing book. -- Molly Clarkson, Haida Gwaii resident * The Ormsby Review *Table of ContentsPart 1: Pasts and Futures1 An Introduction to Haida Future-Making in Old Massett2 The Everyday Temporalities of Life on Haida GwaiiPart 2: Home3 Coming Home to Haida Gwaii: Haida Departures and Returns in the Future Perfect4 Of Hippies and Haida: Fantasy, Future-Making, and the Allure of Haida GwaiiPart 3: Care5 Leading “from the Bottom of the Pole”: Care and Governance in the Haida World6 Precarious Authority: Endangerment and the Political Promise to Protect Haida GwaiiConclusion: Unsettling FuturesNotes; References; Index
£25.19
Rutgers University Press After Capitalism Horizons of Finance Culture and
Book SynopsisBrings together leading scholars to offer competing perspectives on capitalism's past incarnations, present conditions, and possible futures. Some contributors reassess classic theorizations of capitalism in light of recent trends. Others examine Marx's writings, unemployment, hoarding, capitalist realism, and coyote (trickster) capitalism, among many other topics.Trade Review"Imagination and passion fuel these essays, which confront the worst of capitalism’s violence and the terrors of capitalism’s aftermath. A timely and well-edited collection, After Capitalism begins a crucial conversation among political economics, representation and imaging, and geopolitical mapping." -- Amy Villarejo * Cornell University *"After Capitalism powerfully extends the horizon of capitalism's conceptualization, and is essential reading for anyone interested in critiques of globalization, culture and economics or the cultural politics of recession." -- Lisa Parks * coeditor of Signal Traffic: Critical Studies of Media Infrastructures *Table of Contents AcknowledgmentsIntroduction Patrice Petro and Kennan FergusonPart IFinancialization, Creditocracy, AusterityChapter 1 Capital, after Capitalism Geoff MannChapter 2 Restoration of the Rentier and the Turn to Lifelong Extraction Andrew RossChapter 3 The Subprime Subject of Ideology Ivan AscherChapter 4 Social Democracy and its Discontents: The Rise of Austerity Jeffrey SommersPart IIMedia/ArtChapter 5 Austerity Media Patrice PetroChapter 6 Imagining Beyond Capital: Representation and Reality in Science Fiction Film Sherryl VintChapter 7 Mistaken Places: Unemployment, Avant Gardism, and the Auto da Fé Marcus BullockChapter 8 Liquid, Crystal, Vaporous: The Natural States of Capitalism Esther LesliePart III BelongingChapter 9 Cuban Filmmaking and the Post-Capitalist Transition Cristina VenegasChapter 10 “Neither Eastern nor Western”: Economic and Cultural Policies in Post-Revolutionary Iran Niki AkhavanChapter 11 Differentiating Citizenship A. AneeshChapter 12 Gaming the System: Imperial Discomfort and the Emergence of Coyote Capitalism Bernard C. Perley Notes on Contributors Index
£25.19
Edward Elgar Handbook of Futures Studies
Book Synopsis
£230.00
Cornell University Press All Societies Die
Book SynopsisTrade ReviewAll Societies Die is judiciously researched and expertly written, and its philosophical insights could potentially make the difference between utopia and dystopia in both the present and the future. Highly recommended, especially for public and college library Social Issues collections. * Midwest Book Review *This exciting and thought-provoking book provides a brief historical analysis of the causes of death of great civilizations by depicting factors that led to the collapse of powerful empires. * Social Forces *In this highly accessible and thought-provoking book, Cohn addresses the factors that contribute to societal collapse with the aim of identifying what needs to be collectively addressed to avoid the collapse of today's global society. Informed by historical and contemporary sources, this is an important contribution to historical and political sociology collections. * Choice *Table of ContentsTHE REALITY OF SOCIETAL DEATH 1. All Societies Die 2. Is a Fall Really a Fall? 3. The Fall of the Byzantine Empire: The Greatest Story You've Never Heard 4. The End Comes to Byzantium 5. The Environmental Causes of Violence in the Middle East 6. The French Revolution: Fighting about Taxes at the Worst Possible Time 7. How States Actually Die: The Real-Life Death of Somalia 8. Somalia after the Fall 9. What Links These Stories? TEMPTING FALSE STEPS 10. Rethinking Ecological Catastrophe 11. Rethinking Moral Crisis THINKING BIG ABOUT THINKING BIG 12. Networks of Cooperation 13. Why Bigger Is Better 14. Legitimation: So Hard to Earn, So Precious to Have 15. Psychological Foundations of Societal Survival WHAT WOULD BE LOST 16. Progress That Is Real: The Reduction of Poverty 17. Progress That Is Real: The Improvement in Health 18. Progress That Is Real: The Reduction of Violent Crime THE SEEDS OF TROUBLE 19. The Motivation to Not Cooperate: The Origins of Civilization in Raiding 20. Primitive Accumulation Today: Raiding Is Not Dead 21. he Motivation to Not Cooperate: How Europe Historically Underdeveloped Much of the World 22. What Can Go Wrong When Western Companies Invest in Poor Nations 23. Cycles of Catastrophic Debt THE HIDDEN SOURCE OF STRENGTH 24. East Asian Secrets of Economic Growth 25. Big Government and Prosperity in the United States 26. The Miracle of Airports 27. The Origins of National Technological Advantage 28. The Economic Returns to Funding Scientific Research 29. The Tax Revolt: How the Conservative Middle Class Became the Revolutionary Class of Capitalism 30. Why Tax Cuts Do Not Create Jobs CRIME, CORRUPTION AND VIOLENCE 31. The Explosion of Crime in the Global South 32. The Parallel Power: The Criminal Second State 33. A Guide to Corruption for Naive Idealists 34. Technical Demoralization 35. What It Takes to Clean Up Corruption 36. Ethnic Violence: The Economic Basis of Hatred 37. Working at Creating a Culture of Hatred 38. Landlessness and Political Violence 39. Landlessness and Political Violence: The Evidence 40. The Global Land Grab 41. Population Growth and Landlessness TRIGGERS OF DESTRUCTION 42. Triggers of Destruction 43. Long-Term Booms and Busts in Capitalism 44. Technological and International Causes of Stagnation 45. Will There Be a Sixth Mensch Cycle? 46. Ever-Expanding Frontiers of Ecological Destruction 47. Why Women's Power Matters 48. Patriarchy Redux? THE CIRCLE OF SOCIETAL DEATH 49. The Circle of Societal Death 50. Triggering the Circle of Societal Death CHANGING THE CULTURE, CHANGING THE WORLD 51. Creating a Culture of Societal Survival 52. Changing the Culture of One-Third of the World: How Christianity Spread from Palestine 53. Creating a Culture of Caretaking: Women in Ancient Rome and 2000's Uganda 54. Creating Lasting Meaningful Social Reform: The Abolition of Slavery I 55. Creating Lasting Meaningful Social Reform: The Abolition of Slavery II 56. Doing the Right Thing under Impossible Conditions: Saving the Jews under Nazism 57. What You Can Do to Save the World
£19.94
Cornell University Press Uncertainty by Design
Book SynopsisIn 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. Scenarioor scenario planningemerged 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 goveTable of ContentsIntroduction: Uncertainty, Scenarios, and the Future 1. Chronicity: The Problematization of Scenario Thinking 2. Narrative-Building: Imagining Plausible Futures 3. Exercising: Practicing the Unexpected 4. Subjectivation: Embracing Uncertainty 5. Simulations: Possibilities and Responses 6. Scenarios, Temporality, and Uncertainty Conclusions and Critical Limitations Epilogue: Scenarios and the Dynamics between Science and Imagination
£21.59
John Wiley and Sons Ltd The Metric Society: On the Quantification of the
Book SynopsisIn 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.Trade Review ‘In this brilliant book, Steffen Mau does not simply demonstrate the distortions that occur when excessive reliance is placed on statistical indicators, but shows how the current mania for measurement and quantification eats away at social relationships and even our sense of ourselves.’Colin Crouch, Emeritus Professor at the University of Warwick ‘Mau, a leading expert on inequality in Europe, is tackling a question of growing significance: the relationship between quantification, status comparison and social competition. His probing analysis offers a fresh perspective for understanding the brave new world of self-monitoring we live in. It offers convincing explanations for current anxieties of performance that are fed by growing inequality and neoliberalism. Influential in Germany, this excellent book should find a wide readership in the English-reading public.’Michèle Lamont, past President, American Sociological Association "A timely, informative and appropriately pessimistic book."Morning Star ‘A wide-ranging tour through rankings and ratings, stars and points, charts and graphs… the metric society may prove a means for faraway data overlords to capture power and entrench inequality in the guise of efficiency. It risks descending into a 21st-century dystopia that is almost as bleak, in its impersonal way, as those imagined in the darkest novels of the 20th.’The Economist"The book is well grounded in a vast and relevant literature and covers an extensive array of topics, from academic rankings to actuarial justice, through to credit scores, travel reviews, professional assessment, and reputation building through social media, among others. In the process, it offers important insights and raises relevant questions, many of which have a clear Foucaultian inspiration."Sociological Research OnlineTable of ContentsIntroduction 1 1 The Measurement of Social Value 10 What does quantification mean? 12 The calculative practices of the market 15 The state as data manager 17 Engines of quantification: digitalization and economization 21 2 Status Competition and the Power of Numbers 26 Dispositives of comparison 28 Commensurability and incommensurability 31 New horizons of comparison 33 Registers of comparison and investive status work 35 3 Hierarchization: Rankings and Ratings 40 Visibilization and the creation of difference 40 On your marks! 43 University rankings 47 Here today, gone tomorrow: the market power of rating agencies 53 4 Classification: Scoring and Screening 60 Credit scoring 63 Quantified health status 67 Mobility value 71 ‘Boost your score’ – academic status markers 74 Social worth investigations 78 5 The Evaluation Cult: Stars and Points 81 Satisfaction surveys 82 Evaluation portals as selectors 84 Peer-to-peer ratings 87 Professions in the evaluative spotlight 89 Like-based reputations on social media 93 6 The Quantified Self: Charts and Graphs 99 Health, exercise and mood 101 The collective body 104 Motivation techniques 106 7 The Power of Nomination 111 The nomination power of the state 112 Performance measurement and the framing of competition 115 The nomination power of experts 119 Algorithmic authority 123 Critique of nomination power 125 8 Risks and Side-Effects 129 Reactive measurements 129 Loss of professional control 133 Loss of time and energy 135 Monoculture versus diversity 137 9 Transparency and Discipline 141 Normative and political pressure 144 The power of feedback 147 Technological surveillance in the workplace 149 The new tariff systems 151 The interdependence of self- and external surveillance 153 The regime of averages, benchmarks and body images 155 10 The Inequality Regime of Quantification 158 Establishment of worth 160 Reputation management 162 Collectives of non-equals 166 From class conflict to individual competition 168 Inescapability and status fluidity 170 Self-reinforcing effects 174 Bibliography 177 Index 196
£45.00
John Wiley and Sons Ltd The Metric Society: On the Quantification of the
Book SynopsisIn 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.Trade Review‘In this brilliant book, Steffen Mau does not simply demonstrate the distortions that occur when excessive reliance is placed on statistical indicators, but shows how the current mania for measurement and quantification eats away at social relationships and even our sense of ourselves.’Colin Crouch, Emeritus Professor at the University of Warwick ‘Mau, a leading expert on inequality in Europe, is tackling a question of growing significance: the relationship between quantification, status comparison and social competition. His probing analysis offers a fresh perspective for understanding the brave new world of self-monitoring we live in. It offers convincing explanations for current anxieties of performance that are fed by growing inequality and neoliberalism. Influential in Germany, this excellent book should find a wide readership in the English-reading public.’Michèle Lamont, past President, American Sociological Association "A timely, informative and appropriately pessimistic book."Morning Star ‘A wide-ranging tour through rankings and ratings, stars and points, charts and graphs… the metric society may prove a means for faraway data overlords to capture power and entrench inequality in the guise of efficiency. It risks descending into a 21st-century dystopia that is almost as bleak, in its impersonal way, as those imagined in the darkest novels of the 20th.’The Economist"The book is well grounded in a vast and relevant literature and covers an extensive array of topics, from academic rankings to actuarial justice, through to credit scores, travel reviews, professional assessment, and reputation building through social media, among others. In the process, it offers important insights and raises relevant questions, many of which have a clear Foucaultian inspiration."Sociological Research OnlineTable of ContentsIntroduction 1 1 The Measurement of Social Value 10 What does quantification mean? 12 The calculative practices of the market 15 The state as data manager 17 Engines of quantification: digitalization and economization 21 2 Status Competition and the Power of Numbers 26 Dispositives of comparison 28 Commensurability and incommensurability 31 New horizons of comparison 33 Registers of comparison and investive status work 35 3 Hierarchization: Rankings and Ratings 40 Visibilization and the creation of difference 40 On your marks! 43 University rankings 47 Here today, gone tomorrow: the market power of rating agencies 53 4 Classification: Scoring and Screening 60 Credit scoring 63 Quantified health status 67 Mobility value 71 ‘Boost your score’ – academic status markers 74 Social worth investigations 78 5 The Evaluation Cult: Stars and Points 81 Satisfaction surveys 82 Evaluation portals as selectors 84 Peer-to-peer ratings 87 Professions in the evaluative spotlight 89 Like-based reputations on social media 93 6 The Quantified Self: Charts and Graphs 99 Health, exercise and mood 101 The collective body 104 Motivation techniques 106 7 The Power of Nomination 111 The nomination power of the state 112 Performance measurement and the framing of competition 115 The nomination power of experts 119 Algorithmic authority 123 Critique of nomination power 125 8 Risks and Side-Effects 129 Reactive measurements 129 Loss of professional control 133 Loss of time and energy 135 Monoculture versus diversity 137 9 Transparency and Discipline 141 Normative and political pressure 144 The power of feedback 147 Technological surveillance in the workplace 149 The new tariff systems 151 The interdependence of self- and external surveillance 153 The regime of averages, benchmarks and body images 155 10 The Inequality Regime of Quantification 158 Establishment of worth 160 Reputation management 162 Collectives of non-equals 166 From class conflict to individual competition 168 Inescapability and status fluidity 170 Self-reinforcing effects 174 Bibliography 177 Index 196
£15.19
University of Minnesota Press Transhumanism: Evolutionary Futurism and the
Book SynopsisTranshumanism posits that humanity is on the verge of rapid evolutionary change as a result of emerging technologies and increased global consciousness. However, this insight is dismissed as a naive and controversial reframing of posthumanist thought, having also been vilified as “the most dangerous idea in the world” by Francis Fukuyama. In this book, Andrew Pilsch counters these critiques, arguing instead that transhumanism’s utopian rhetoric actively imagines radical new futures for the species and its habitat.Pilsch situates contemporary transhumanism within the longer history of a rhetorical mode he calls “evolutionary futurism” that unifies diverse texts, philosophies, and theories of science and technology that anticipate a radical explosion in humanity’s cognitive, physical, and cultural potentialities. By conceptualizing transhumanism as a rhetoric, as opposed to an obscure group of fringe figures, he explores the intersection of three major paradigms shaping contemporary Western intellectual life: cybernetics, evolutionary biology, and spiritualism. In analyzing this collision, his work traces the belief in a digital, evolutionary, and collective future through a broad range of texts written by theologians and mystics, biologists and computer scientists, political philosophers and economic thinkers, conceptual artists and Golden Age science fiction writers. Unearthing the long history of evolutionary futurism, Pilsch concludes, allows us to more clearly see the novel contributions that transhumanism offers for escaping our current geopolitical bind by inspiring radical utopian thought. Trade Review"I know of no other work that provides such a detailed and penetrating analysis of a cultural trend—transhumanism—that promises, like it or not, to be of increasing importance in the near future."—Jeff Pruchnic, author of Rhetoric and Ethics in the Cybernetic Age: The Transhuman Condition"Pilsch’s book offers a positive outlook of the posthumanist ethos and a nuanced consideration of transhumanism, contributing an important and lucid analysis of the movement’s evolution and a theoretical engagement with transhumanism’s rhetoric that will prove fascinating to anyone thinking about technology and the human limit."—Project MuseTable of ContentsContentsIntroduction1. An Inner Transhumanism: Modernism and Cognitive Evolution2. Astounding Transhumanism! Evolutionary Supermen and the Golden Age of Science Fiction3. Toward Omega: Hedonism, Suffering, and the Evolutionary Vanguard4. Transhuman Aesthetics: The New, the Lived, and the CuteConclusion: Acceleration and Evolutionary Futurist Utopian PracticeAcknowledgmentsNotesIndex
£77.60
University of Minnesota Press Transhumanism: Evolutionary Futurism and the
Book SynopsisTranshumanism posits that humanity is on the verge of rapid evolutionary change as a result of emerging technologies and increased global consciousness. However, this insight is dismissed as a naive and controversial reframing of posthumanist thought, having also been vilified as “the most dangerous idea in the world” by Francis Fukuyama. In this book, Andrew Pilsch counters these critiques, arguing instead that transhumanism’s utopian rhetoric actively imagines radical new futures for the species and its habitat.Pilsch situates contemporary transhumanism within the longer history of a rhetorical mode he calls “evolutionary futurism” that unifies diverse texts, philosophies, and theories of science and technology that anticipate a radical explosion in humanity’s cognitive, physical, and cultural potentialities. By conceptualizing transhumanism as a rhetoric, as opposed to an obscure group of fringe figures, he explores the intersection of three major paradigms shaping contemporary Western intellectual life: cybernetics, evolutionary biology, and spiritualism. In analyzing this collision, his work traces the belief in a digital, evolutionary, and collective future through a broad range of texts written by theologians and mystics, biologists and computer scientists, political philosophers and economic thinkers, conceptual artists and Golden Age science fiction writers. Unearthing the long history of evolutionary futurism, Pilsch concludes, allows us to more clearly see the novel contributions that transhumanism offers for escaping our current geopolitical bind by inspiring radical utopian thought. Trade Review"I know of no other work that provides such a detailed and penetrating analysis of a cultural trend—transhumanism—that promises, like it or not, to be of increasing importance in the near future."—Jeff Pruchnic, author of Rhetoric and Ethics in the Cybernetic Age: The Transhuman Condition"Pilsch’s book offers a positive outlook of the posthumanist ethos and a nuanced consideration of transhumanism, contributing an important and lucid analysis of the movement’s evolution and a theoretical engagement with transhumanism’s rhetoric that will prove fascinating to anyone thinking about technology and the human limit."—Project MuseTable of ContentsContentsIntroduction1. An Inner Transhumanism: Modernism and Cognitive Evolution2. Astounding Transhumanism! Evolutionary Supermen and the Golden Age of Science Fiction3. Toward Omega: Hedonism, Suffering, and the Evolutionary Vanguard4. Transhuman Aesthetics: The New, the Lived, and the CuteConclusion: Acceleration and Evolutionary Futurist Utopian PracticeAcknowledgmentsNotesIndex
£20.69
University of Minnesota Press Curiosity Studies: A New Ecology of Knowledge
Book SynopsisThe first English-language collection to establish curiosity studies as a unique field From science and technology to business and education, curiosity is often taken for granted as an unquestioned good. And yet, few people can define curiosity. Curiosity Studies marshals scholars from more than a dozen fields not only to define curiosity but also to grapple with its ethics as well as its role in technological advancement and global citizenship. While intriguing research on curiosity has occurred in numerous disciplines for decades, no rigorously cross-disciplinary study has existed—until now. Curiosity Studies stages an interdisciplinary conversation about what curiosity is and what resources it holds for human and ecological flourishing. These engaging essays are integrated into four clusters: scientific inquiry, educational practice, social relations, and transformative power. By exploring curiosity through the practice of scientific inquiry, the contours of human learning, the stakes of social difference, and the potential of radical imagination, these clusters focus and reinvigorate the study of this universal but slippery phenomenon: the desire to know. Against the assumption that curiosity is neutral, this volume insists that curiosity has a history and a political import and requires precision to define and operationalize. As various fields deepen its analysis, a new ecosystem for knowledge production can flourish, driven by real-world problems and a commitment to solve them in collaboration. By paying particular attention to pedagogy throughout, Curiosity Studies equips us to live critically and creatively in what might be called our new Age of Curiosity.Contributors: Danielle S. Bassett, U of Pennsylvania; Barbara M. Benedict, Trinity College; Susan Engel, Williams College; Ellen K. Feder, American U; Kristina T. Johnson, Massachusetts Institute of Technology; Narendra Keval; Christina León, Princeton U; Tyson Lewis, U of North Texas; Amy Marvin, U of Oregon; Hilary M. Schor, U of Southern California; Seeta Sistla, Hampshire College; Heather Anne Swanson, Aarhus U.Table of ContentsContentsForewordPamela Grossman and John L. Jackson Jr.Introduction: What Is Curiosity Studies?Perry Zurn and Arjun Shankar Part I. Interrogating the Scientific Enterprise1. Exploring the Costs of Curiosity: An Environmental Scientist’s DilemmaSeeta Sistla2. Curious Ecologies of Knowledge: More-than-Human AnthropologyHeather Anne Swanson3. Curiosity, Ethics, and the Medical Management of Intersex AnatomiesEllen K. FederPart II. Relearning How We Learn4. A Network Science of the Practice of CuriosityDanielle S. Bassett5. Why Should This Be So? The Waxing and Waning of Children’s CuriositySusan Engel6. The Dude Abides, or, Why Curiosity Is Important for Education TodayTyson Lewis7. “The Campus is Sick”: Capitalist Curiosity and Student Mental HealthArjun ShankarPart III. Reimagining How We Relate8. Autism, Neurodiversity, and CuriosityKristina T. Johnson9. Obstacles to Curiosity and Concern: Exploring the Racist ImaginationNarendra Keval10. Curious Entanglements: Opacity and Ethical Relation in Latina/o AestheticsChristina León11. Transsexuality, the Curio, and the Transgender Tipping PointAmy MarvinPart IV. Deconstructing the Status Quo12. Peeping and Transgression: Curiosity and Collecting in English LiteratureBarbara M. Benedict13. Curiosity and Political ResistancePerry Zurn14. Curiosity at the End of the World: Women, Fiction, ElectricityHilary M. SchorConclusion: On Teaching CuriosityArjun Shankar and Perry Zurn AfterwordHelga NowotnyAcknowledgmentsContributorsIndex
£86.40
University of Minnesota Press Calamity Theory: Three Critiques of Existential
Book SynopsisWhat are the implications of how we talk about apocalypse? A new philosophical field has emerged. “Existential risk” studies any real or hypothetical human extinction event in the near or distant future. This movement examines catastrophes ranging from runaway global warming to nuclear warfare to malevolent artificial intelligence, deploying a curious mix of utilitarian ethics, statistical risk analysis, and, controversially, a transhuman advocacy that would aim to supersede almost all extinction scenarios. The proponents of existential risk thinking, led by Oxford philosopher Nick Bostrom, have seen their work gain immense popularity, attracting endorsement from Bill Gates and Elon Musk, millions of dollars, and millions of views. Calamity Theory is the first book to examine the rise of this thinking and its failures to acknowledge the ways some communities and lifeways are more at risk than others and what it implies about human extinction.Forerunners: Ideas First is a thought-in-process series of breakthrough digital publications. Written between fresh ideas and finished books, Forerunners draws on scholarly work initiated in notable blogs, social media, conference plenaries, journal articles, and the synergy of academic exchange. This is gray literature publishing: where intense thinking, change, and speculation take place in scholarship.Table of ContentsIntroduction: What Is Existential Risk?1. Endgame Philosophy2. Probability and Speculation3. The Existential Roots of Existential RiskConclusion: Opening the “Letter from Utopia”Acknowledgments
£9.00
University of Minnesota Press Solarities: Seeking Energy Justice
Book SynopsisA collective engages and mirrors the critical need for energy justice and transformation Solarities considers the possibilities of organizing societies and economies around solar energy, and the challenges of a just and equitable transition away from fossil fuels. Far from presenting solarity as a utopian solution to the climate crisis, it critically examines the ambiguous potentials of solarities: plural, situated, and often contradictory. Here, a diverse collective of activists, scholars, and practitioners critically engage a wide range of relationships and orientations to the sun. They consider the material and infrastructural dimensions of solar power, the decolonial and feminist promises of decentralized energy, solarian relations with more-than-human kin, and the problem of oppressive and weaponized solarities. Solarities imagines—and demands— possibilities for energy justice in this transition.Trade Review "Hope is abundant in these pages. Readers are electrified with ideas for equitable energy regimes, mirroring the excited electrons that ambulate to generate electricity in solar panels. "—Antipode
£9.00
University of Minnesota Press No More Fossils
Book SynopsisExplores ecological impasses and opportunities of our fossil-fueled civilization It is more and more obvious that our fossilized civilization has no sustainable future. It is an ecological Ponzi scheme stealing away the lives of countless species and the wellbeing of future generations in exchange for contemporary conveniences and the luxuries of a small subset of the human population. Yet a civilization wholly beyond fossils still seems difficult to grasp. In No More Fossils, Dominic Boyer tells the story of the rise of fossil civilization through successive phases of sucropolitics (plantation sugar), carbopolitics (industrial coal), and petropolitics (oily automobility and plasticity), showing what tethers us to the ecocidal trajectory of petroculture today and what it will take to overcome the forces that mire us in place. He also looks ahead toward the world that the rapid electrification of vehicles, buildings, and power is creating. What can we do to make electroculture more just and sustainable than the petroculture we are leaving behind?
£9.00
Wilfrid Laurier University Press Technonatures: Environments, Technologies, Spaces, and Places in the Twenty-first Century
Book SynopsisEnvironmentalism and social sciences appear to be in a period of disorientation and perhaps transition. In this innovative collection, leading international thinkers explore the notion that one explanation for the current malaise of the "politics of ecology" is that we increasingly find ourselves negotiating "technonatural" space/times. International contributors map the political ecologies of our technonatural present and indicate possible paths for technonatural futures. The term "technonatures" is in debt to a long line of environmental cultural theory from Raymond Williams onwards, problematizing the idea that a politics of the environment can be usefully grounded in terms of the rhetoric of defending the pure, the authentic, or an idealized past solely in terms of the ecological or the natural. In using the term "technonatures" as an organizing myth and metaphor for thinking about the politics of nature in contemporary times, this collection seeks to explore one increasingly pronounced dimension of the social natures discussion. Technonatures highlights a growing range of voices considering the claim that we are not only inhabiting diverse social natures but that within such natures our knowledge of our worlds is ever more technologically mediated, produced, enacted, and contested.Trade Review"Environmental sociologists and geographers will find this book entertaining and enlightening as well as sugggestive of new ways of looking at the environment." -- A.A. Hickey, Western Carolina University -- CHOICE, April 2010, 201004"This anthology probes the changing relationships between society and the natural environment. It examines the popular sense that environmentalists have lost their way. How have they failed to appeal to broad publics? Why have public perceptions of environmental risk and climate change not been translated into political will? Technonatures shows the different ways that nature increasingly reflects human interventions--from medical innovations to agricultural and conservation practice to the continental scale of the impacts of human-introduced pests. This is a book that offers lucid insights and will appeal to a broad audience." -- Rob Shields, Henry Marshall Tory Research Chair, Departments of Sociology andArt and Design, University of Alberta. He is the founding editorof Space and Culture. -- 200905Table of ContentsTable of Contents for Technonatues: Environments, Technologies, Spaces, and Places in the Twenty-first Century , edited by Damian F. White and Chris Wilbert Introduction: Inhabiting Technonatural Space/Times | Damian F. White and Chris Wilbert Part One: Conceptualizing Technonatural Time/Spaces Chapter One: Governing Global Environmental Flows: Ecological Modernization in Technonatural Time/Spaces | Peter Oosterveer Chapter Two: Circulations and Metabolisms: (Hybrid) Natures and (Cyborgs) Cities | Erik Swyngedouw Chapter Three: The Cellphone-in-the-Countryside: On Some of the Ironic Spatialities of Technonature | Mike Michael Chapter Four: Living Cities: Towards a Politics of Conviviality | Steve Hinchcliffe and Sarah Whatmore Part Two: Experiencing Technonatural Cultures Chapter Five: Boundaries and Border Wars: DES, Technology, and Environmental Justice | Julie Sze Chapter Six: Critical Mass: How Built Bodies Can Help Forge Environmental Futures | Fletcher Linder Chapter Seven: Living Betwwen Nature and Technoogy: The Suburban Constitution of Environmentalism in Australia | Aidan Davison Part Three: Technonatural Present-Futures Chapter Eight: The Property Boundaries/Boundary Properties in Technonatural Studies: âInventing the Futureâ | Timothy W. Luke Chapter Nine: Fluid Architectures: Ecologies of Hybrid Urbanism | Simon Guy Chapter Ten: A Post-industrial Green Economy: The New Productive Forces and the Crisis of the Academic Left | Brian Milani Contributors Index Contributors Aidan Davison is a lecturer in human geography and environmental studies at the University of Tasmania. His interdisciplinary research interests arise at intersections of socio-cultural themes of nature, technology, and sustainability. The author of Technology and the Contested Meanings of Sustainability (Albany, NY: SUNY Press, 2001), he has published many articles and book chapters on topics such as public perceptions of biotechnology, Australian environmentalism, and education for sustainability. Simon Guy is a professor of architecture at the University of Manchester. His research aims to critically understand the co-evolution of design and development strategies and socio-economic processes shaping cities. His publications include (with S. Moore) Sustainable Architectures: Cultures and Natures in Europe and North America (Oxford: Spon, 2005) and (with Elizabeth Shove) A Sociology of Energy, Buildings, and the Environment: Constructing Knowledge (London: Routledge, 2000). Steve Hinchliffe is a reader in environmental geography and director of research for geography at the Open University. He works on the geographies of nature, non-humans, and environments. He is author and editor of numerous books and articles on issues ranging from risk and food to biosecurity, urban ecologies, and nature conservation. His research focuses on the âmaking of things in practicesâ and draws together insights from science and technology studies (STS) and geography. His publications include Geographies of Nature: Societies, Environments, Ecologies (London: Sage, 2007); and (with Kathryn Woodward) The Natural and the Social: Change, Risk and Uncertainty , second edition (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004). Fletcher Linder is an associate professor of anthropology at James Madison University. He has studied and published across a variety of topics, including sports and aesthetics, illness experience and care, interpersonal violence, and environmental politics. He has conducted ethnographic, epidemiological, urban-landscape, and community-based intervention research in such areas as the American South, California, Canada, and Australia. He is presently completing a monograph titled âWaiting for Arnold: Image, Body Discipline, and Late Capitalism.â Timothy W. Luke is University Distinguished Professor of Political Science at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University in Blacksburg, Virginia. He also is the Program Chair for Government and International Affairs in the School of Public and International Affairs, and founding Director of the Alliance for Social, Political, Ethical, and Social Theory (ASPECT) in the College of Liberal Arts and Human Sciences at Virginia Tech.His publications include Capitalism, Democracy and Ecology: Departing from Marx (Champaign: University of Illinois Press, 1999); The Politics of Cyber Space (co-edited with Chris Toulouseâ New York: Routledge, 1998); and Eco Critique: Contesting the Politics of Nature, Economy and Culture (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1997). The author of more than 150 journal articles and edited book chapters, he writes extensively on the politics of museums as well environmental politics, international affairs, and social theory. Mike Michael is a professor of sociology of science and technology, and director of the Centre for the Study of Invention and Social Process, in the sociology department, Goldsmiths, University of London. His research is concerned with a number of areas, notably the public understanding of science; the sociology of mundane technologies; the sociology of biomedical innovation; the sociology of everyday life; animals and society; and materiality and sociality. He is the author of Technoscience and Everyday Life: The Complex Simplicities of the Mundane (Bristol: Open University Press, 2006); Science, Social Theory, and Public Knowledge (with Alan IrwinâBristol: Open University Press, 2003); Reconnecting Culture, Technology, and Nature: From Society to Heterogeneity (London: Routledge, 2002); and Constructing Identities: The Social, the Nonhuman, and Change (London: Sage, 1996). Brian Milani is an associate of the Transformative Learning Centre and coordinator of the Business and Environment Program at York Universityâs Faculty of Environmental Studies. He is author of Designing the Green Economy (Lanham: Rowman and Littlefield, 2000) and a member of the Coalition for a Green Economy. His focus for more than two decades has been on creating grassroots ecological alternatives through community development, construction, education, and general trouble making. He was co-founder of Green City Construction and is the director of Torontoâs long-running course on green economic alternatives, âThe Green Economy at the Labour Education Centre,â featuring Torontoâs cutting-edge eco-innovators.He has also been involved with green labour activities at the Labour Council of Toronto and Carpenters Local 27. Peter Oosterveer is a senior lecturer in environmental policy in the Department of Social Sciences at Wageningen University. He has published extensively on globalization and the sustainability of food production and consumption; the labelling and certification of food; environmental policy and management in Africa; and social theory and âa sociology of flows.â Erik Swyngedouw is a professor of geography at the University of Manchesterâs School of Environment and Development. From the late 1980s until 2006 he taught at Oxford University, latterly as Professor of Geography, and was a Fellow of St. Peterâs College. His research focuses on political-economic analysis of contemporary capitalism. He has produced several major works on economic globalization, regional development, finance, and urbanization. Recently his interests have turned to political-ecological themes and the transformation of nature, notably water issues, in Ecuador, Spain, Britain, and elsewhere in Europe. His publications include Globalizations (Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 2004); Social Power and the Urbanization of Waterâ Flows of Power (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004); and (with F. Moulaert and A. Rodriguez, eds.), The Globalized City: Economic Restructuring and Social Polarization in European Cities (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2003). Julie Sze is associate professor of American studies at the University of California, Davis, as well as the founding director of the Environmental Justice project for UC Davisâs John Muir Institute for the Environment. Szeâs book, Noxious New York: The Racial Politics of Urban Health and Environmental Justice , won the 2008 John Hope Franklin Publication Prize, awarded annually to the best published book in American studies. Szeâs research investigates environmental justice and environmental inequality; culture and environment; race, gender, and power; and community health and activism. She has published on a wide range of topics such as energy and air polution activism; toxicity; the cultural politics of the Hummer, and on environmental justice novels and cultural production. Sarah Whatmore is a professor of geography and director of the International Graduate School at the Oxford University Centre for the Environment/ School of Geography. Her research focuses on relations between people and the mate
£33.96
Potomac Books Inc Predicting the Winner
Book SynopsisThe history of American elections changed profoundly on the night of November 4, 1952. An outside-the-box approach to predicting winners from early returns with new tools—computers—was launched live and untested on the newest medium for news: television. Like exhibits in a freak show, computers were referred to as “electronic brains” and “mechanical monsters.” Yet this innovation would help fuel an obsession with numbers as a way of understanding and shaping politics. It would engender controversy down to our own time. And it would herald a future in which the public square would go digital. The gamble was fueled by a crisis of credibility stemming from faulty election-night forecasts four years earlier, in 1948, combined with a lackluster presentation of returns. What transpired in 1952 is a complex tale of responses to innovation, which Ira Chinoy makes understandable via a surprising history of election nights as venues for rolling out
£27.90
Edward Elgar Publishing Ltd Predicting the Future in Science, Economics, and
Book SynopsisIt is a puzzle that while academic research has increased in specialization, the important and complex problems facing humans urgently require a synthesis of understanding. This unique collaboration attempts to address such a problem by bringing together a host of prominent scholars from across the sciences to offer new insights into predicting the future. They demonstrate that long-term trends and short-term incentives need to be understood in order to adopt effective policies, or even to comprehend where we currently stand and the sort of future that awaits us.Developing novel techniques to forecast global conditions, the authors tackle important questions such as: What does the future hold? How can we sustain prosperity? Are we likely to have less war and genocide? Are nuclear weapons destined to spread to unstable countries? What environmental scarcities and conflicts are we likely to face? Each chapter is built around cause and effect relationships based on empirical evidence that creates a unified predictive model of global economic and political conditions. The limits and possibilities of scientific prediction are also explored, as are the physical, biological, and social properties of the global system.This book will have a wide appeal among physical and social scientists interested in the linkages between scientific method and the prediction of future human behavior and global conditions.Contributors: R.D. Alexander, B. Bueno de Mesquita, J.D. Farmer, J. Geanakoplos, J. Holland, S. di Iorio, M.S. Karasik, U. Luterbacher, S.W. Polachek, D. Rohner, G. Schneider, J.D. Singer, D.F. Sprinz, A. Tago, F.W. Wayman, E. Wiegandt, D. Wilkinson, P.R. Williamson, E.O. WilsonTable of ContentsContents: Preface and Introduction: Overview of Why this Book Matters Frank W. Wayman, Paul R. Williamson, Solomon W. Polachek and Bruce Bueno de Mesquita PART I. THE PROMISE OF GLOBAL FORECASTING 1. Scientific Prediction and the Human Condition Frank W. Wayman 2. Organizing Diverse Contributions to Global Forecasting Paul R. Williamson PART II. HUMAN NATURE AND PREDICTION Editors' Introduction to Part II Frank W. Wayman 3. Consilience: the Role of Human Nature in the Emergence of Social Artifacts Edward O. Wilson 4. Darwin's Challenges and the Future of Human Society Richard Alexander PART III. THE VALUE OF THE FUTURE Editors' Introduction to Part III Frank W. Wayman 5. Properly Discounting the Future: Using Predictions in an Uncertain World J. Doyne Farmer and John Geanakoplos 6. Long-Term Policy Problems: Definition, Origins, and Responses Detlef F. Sprinz 7. Explaining and Predicting Future Environmental Scarcities and Conflict Urs Luterbacher, Dominic Rohner and Ellen Wiegandt PART IV. SOME PROBLEMS ADDRESSED VIA MODELING Editors' Introduction to Part IV Frank W. Wayman 8. Forecasting nuclear weapons proliferation: a hazard model Atsushi Tago and J. David Singer 9. Forecasting Political Developments with the Help of Financial Markets Gerald Schneider PART V. THE GLOBAL SYSTEM AND THE POSSIBILITIES OF PREDICTION Editors' Introduction to Part V Frank W. Wayman 10. Glimpses of the Future John Holland 11. Forecasting the Evolution of Cultural Collisions Using Annealing-Nucleation Models Myron S. Karasik 12. Power Structure Fluctuations in the "Longue Durée" of the World System David Wilkinson 13. From Altruism to the Future Frequency of War: How Consilient Explanation Differs from Prediction Frank W. Wayman 14. System Change and Richardson Processes: Application of Social Field Theory Paul R. Williamson 15. Computational Dynamic Modeling of the Global State Space Paul R. Williamson PART VI. NEW APPROACHES 16. Scientific Revolutions and the Advancement of Explanation and Prediction Frank W. Wayman 17. Innovations in Forecasting the Future that One Can Learn from Prediction Solomon W. Polachek 18. Predicting the Future to Shape the Future Bruce Bueno de Mesquita Index
£153.00
ISTE Ltd and John Wiley & Sons Inc Futures: The Great Turn
Book SynopsisIn the same way as there are many futures, not just one, there are many ways to conceive and practice foresight. The challenge of the great turning point of our civilization is to free ourselves from our prejudices in order to imagine and build desirable futures. The process is, by nature, ethical and prospective. In a complex, uncertain and geopolitically transforming world, we must be open to the diversity of cultures and the different perceptions of the future. This requires us to reflect on the purpose and means of our societies. Futures proposes different cultural and ethical views on civilizational transformation by offering a rare, transnational panorama of the visions of the future in a European, American and Chinese context. Through numerous examples, this book illustrates how foresight is practiced and what this can achieve in strategic terms.Table of ContentsForeword by May East xi Foreword by Patrick Scauflaire xiii Author Biographies xvii Introduction xxvCarine DARTIGUEPEYROU and Michel SALOFF-COSTE Part 1 Epistemological Outlines 1 Chapter 1 Foresight and Civilization 3Michel SALOFF-COSTE 1.1 An unpredictable but interesting future 3 1.2 From the melting pot of popular media to the diversity of forward-looking points of view 5 1.3 Changing civilization, the dynamics of disruptions 5 1.4 Examples of megatrends structuring the future 7 1.5 Foresight epistemology and epistemology of foresight 8 Chapter 2 Cultures and Trajectories 11Jean-Éric AUBERT 2.1 Foundations of civilizations 11 2.2 The “sinicization” of the world and the exercise of power 14 2.3 The pressure on the West and the risks of disintegration 16 2.4 The South and the modernization of societies 17 2.5 Confrontations and conflicts 18 2.6 Facing climate change 19 2.7 Conclusion 21 Chapter 3 Forward-Looking Design of Evolution 23Francis JUTAND 3.1 The search to answer questions about the future 24 3.2 Foresight as the design of human society 25 3.3 History 26 3.4 The dynamics of collective forces 28 3.5 The spiritual questioning 29 3.6 The active imagination of the future 30 Part 2 Foresight at the Service of Action 33 Chapter 4 A European Perspective on Foresight 35Laurent BONTOUX 4.1 Understanding foresight applied to European policies 35 4.2 Foresight for European policies in practice 37 4.2.1 Context 37 4.2.2 Methods 39 4.2.3 A 2040 vision for the customs union 42 4.2.4 Reference scenarios for long-term strategic thinking 44 4.2.5 Foresight for better regulation 45 4.2.6 Short formats to engage decision-makers 45 4.3 How can “good” foresight be achieved? 46 4.4 Conclusion 46 Chapter 5 Foresight in Order to Act Ethically 49Carine DARTIGUEPEYROU 5.1 Analyzing megatrends to question the future 49 5.2 Defining possible bifurcations and disruptions in order to accelerate transitions 52 5.3 Acting on socio-economic trajectories in order to make choices 56 5.4 Conclusion 58 Chapter 6 Foresight at the Service of Innovation 59Nathalie POPIOLEK 6.1 The art of deciding in an uncertain world 60 6.1.1 The essence and role of foresight 60 6.1.2 A holistic and operational approach 61 6.2 Innovation strategy in companies in the context of transition 63 6.2.1 The new industrial and societal situation 64 6.2.2 The different innovation strategies 65 6.3 Foresight and support for innovation in companies 67 6.3.1 Analysis of the innovative ecosystem 67 6.3.2 Consequences of the innovative investment 68 6.3.3 Foresight approach and radical innovation 69 6.4 Conclusion 70 Chapter 7 Acting and Evaluating through Values in the Long Term 73Valérie KAUFFMANN 7.1 The question of foresight applied to territories 73 7.2 Initiating change with action research 74 7.2.1 Better understanding of the issues at work 74 7.2.2 From the initiation of the project to the collective construction process 75 7.2.3 Getting to grips with the subject: integrating biodiversity? Field surveys 75 7.3 The need for dialogue: the values approach 76 7.3.1 The value approach to biodiversity 77 7.3.2 The compass, a tool for territorial strategy through the means of values 77 7.3.3 Entry through values: deciphering 78 7.4 From principles to proposals and means of action 79 7.4.1 Biodiversity as a common good 79 7.4.2 The ethics of dialogue 80 7.4.3 Acting over time 80 7.4.4 Individual and collective responsibilities 81 7.4.5 Towards a compass for territorial foresight 81 Part 3 Scenarios for the Future 83 Chapter 8 Changing the Thinking Mode 85Zhouying JIN 8.1 The challenges facing human beings in the 21st century 85 8.2 Deep concern over the direction of human evolution as well as technological development 87 8.2.1 Concerns about the direction of human evolution 87 8.2.2 The imminent disaster facing science and technology 87 8.2.3 Are human beings ready for the negative impact of technological innovation? 88 8.3 The crisis of so-called human–machine civilization driven by the theory of scientific and technological omnipotence 89 8.3.1 An ideal outcome 89 8.3.2 A tragic outcome 90 8.3.3 Five “Wars” among three categories of species 91 8.4 A new understanding of technology 92 8.4.1 Soft technology that has been neglected for a long time 92 8.4.2 Soft technology, another paradigm of technology 92 8.4.3 Human beings must regulate technology 93 8.4.4 It is not enough just to regulate and control 94 8.5 What kind of civilization should human beings pursue? 95 8.5.1 The essence of Industrial Civilization 95 8.5.2 Exploring the future evolution of humanity from social-humanity perspectives – the sublimation and perfection of human nature 95 8.5.3 Global Civilization 96 8.6 The difficult task of creating a “Global Civilization” 97 8.7 Beyond Global Civilization – paradigm shift: from Global civilization to Great Civilization 97 8.7.1 Human beings should pursue a higher level of civilization than Global Civilization – Great Civilization 97 8.7.2 The significance of Great Civilization 98 8.8 Can humans eventually create a Great Civilization? 98 8.9 Sustainable development – paradigm shift of human survival and development 99 8.10 Changing the thinking mode is the key for paradigm shift 100 Chapter 9 Foresight Shock, Facing the Inevitable Impact of the Climate Crisis 103Herman GYR and Lisa FRIEDMAN 9.1 Looking back to look forward 105 9.2 When foresight becomes shocking: tipping points 107 9.3 The race is on 108 9.4 A profound leadership moment 109 9.5 From foresight shock to climate action 109 9.6 The emergence of the regenerative era 110 9.7 Positive signals of the emerging regenerative era 112 9.8 From foresight shock to mobilizing action at scale: leadership practices 113 9.9 Three leadership practices for building the regenerative era 113 9.9.1 Visionary strategic leadership: from signals to strategy 115 9.9.2 Innovation leadership: from strategy to impact 117 9.9.3 Emotional leadership 118 Chapter 10 Post-Covid-19 Governance: Two Scenarios 123Marc LUYCKX GHISI 10.1 Our approach to foresight 123 10.2 The shock strategy 124 10.2.1 The possibility of a major economic crisis in the near future 124 10.2.2 The two possible scenarios 127 10.3 Conclusion 133 Postface 135Pierre GIORGINI References 145 List of Authors 161 Index 163
£118.80
Collective Ink Resetting Our Future: Learning from Tomorrow:
Book SynopsisCOVID-19 wrecked the plans and strategies of organizations everywhere, while injecting greater uncertainty into a world already undergoing disruptive social and technological change. Strategic Foresight can help us navigate through the recovery and beyond. Strategic Foresight is a systematic, intelligence-gathering, vision-building process that helps us manage uncertainty by discerning plausible alternative futures and applying the insights to present-day planning. It is ideally suited to a world upended by the pandemic and rapid transformations in the way we live, work and interact. Using approachable language and a multitude of examples, Learning from Tomorrow shows how Strategic Foresight broadens our perspectives, exposes opportunities and risks, and opens our minds to innovation in a post-pandemic world. It is essential reading for organizational leaders and those responsible for developing strategies, scenarios, policies and plans.
£10.16
Emerald Publishing Limited AI and Popular Culture
Book SynopsisAI and Popular Culture explores the development and social significance of artificial intelligence by looking at representations in fiction, film and television, as well as examining the effect of AI technologies on the way we consume culture. Lee Barron traces the evolution of AI – from the Turing Machine to deep learning, to interrogate the key issues and debates. He uses examples of AI from pop culture to help us understand how the technology is changing aspects of society from surveillance and work to human relationships with technology. AI and Popular Culture sheds light on how artificial intelligence has changed our world and helps you to understand where it might take us next. It also makes significant contributions to Media and Cultural Studies, Humanities, and Social Sciences, as well as to subjects such as AI Ethics and Society and Computing.Table of ContentsIntroduction- The Age of AI Technics Chapter 1. The Development of Artificial Intelligence and AI Debates Chapter 2. AI and Literature Chapter 3. AI and Film Chapter 4. AI and Television Chapter 5. AI Culture: Living with Artificial Intelligence Conclusion- AI Futures: The Terminator, Kurzweil or Machine Learning Scenario?
£17.09
Liverpool University Press H.G. Wells and the Twenty-First Century
Book SynopsisH.G. Wells has been branded as a novelist who betrayed his vocation. But Wells saw himself as what we would today call a public intellectual. How credible is this claim? And what happens when we look at him in this way? So typecast has Wells’s reputation become that neither of these questions has been previously asked, but when we look at Wells as a thinker we find a whole new quality to his later works, which have invariably been dismissed by literary scholars as of low quality or even not worth reading. In particular, Wells’s prescience as a prophet of our current environmental problems stands out - for example, he foresaw anthropogenic climate change as early as 1931. Popular conceptions of Wells as racist, imperialist and eugenicist are also challenged. What emerges is a new perspective on a significant public intellectual and- pioneering prophet of the twenty-first century.Table of ContentsForeword by Patrick Parrinder Introduction: H.G. Wells, the Disorderly Prophet Wells as Some Sort of Philosopher Days of Future Past: Wells as Historian and Prophet Should Wells Be Cancelled? The Dream of Cosmopolis: Wells and Politics God, Science and Mr Wells Wells and Human Ecology Appendix I: The Philosophical Works of H.G. Wells Appendix II: The Prophecies of H.G. Wells
£110.00
Edward Elgar Publishing Ltd The International Handbook of Social Impact
Book SynopsisSocial Impact Assessment (SIA) is the process of analysing and managing the intended and unintended consequences on the human environment of planned interventions (policies, programmes, plans, projects) so as to bring about a more sustainable and equitable biophysical and human environment. This important Handbook presents an indispensable overview of the range of new methods and of the conceptual advances in SIA.Recent increased attention to social considerations has led to substantial development in the techniques useful to, and the thinking in, SIA. A distinguished group of contributors provides an up-to-date and comprehensive account of the cutting-edge in SIA development.This Handbook outlines a new understanding and definition of SIA and, as such, will be an invaluable reference tool for both practitioners and scholars at different levels working in the fields of SIA and environmental studies (including both impact assessment and management).Trade Review'This book provides a valuable addition to the Social Impact Assessment (SIA) literature. While the volume addresses several good examples of "how to" case studies it also firmly addresses the importance of the need for firm conceptual and theoretical guidelines for SIA practice. . . the volume is an excellent contribution to the SIA literature and I highly recommend it to both practitioner and researcher alike.' -- Geoff Syme, Australasian Journal of Environmental Management'An innovative collection which takes social impact assessment to the frontiers of environmental and social policy and citizen awareness. Unusually, this collection includes both sophisticated quantitative tools and equally important chapters on participation, stakeholder involvement and environmental mediation. A most valuable source book.' -- Michael Redclift, King's College, London, UKTable of ContentsContents: Preface 1. Conceptual and Methodological Advances in Social Impact Assessment Frank Vanclay PART I: CONCEPTUAL ADVANCES IN SOCIAL IMPACT ASSESSMENT 2. Undertaking Longitudinal Research Nick Taylor, Colin Goodrich, Gerard Fitzgerald and Wayne McClintock 3. Using Local Knowledge James Baines, Wayne McClintock, Nick Taylor and Brigid Buckenham 4. Learning from Participatory Land Management Neil Powell and Janice Jiggins 5. Integrating Environmental and Social Impact Assessment Roel Slootweg, Frank Vanclay and Marlies van Schooten 6. Conceptualizing Social Change Processes and Social Impacts Marlies van Schooten, Frank Vanclay and Roel Slootweg 7. Integrating Health and Social Impact Assessment Robert Rattle and Roy E. Kwiatkowski 8. An Ecological Model of Wellbeing Davianna Pomaika’i McGregor, Paula Tanemura Morelli, Jon Kei Matsuoka and Luciano Minerbi PART II: METHODOLOGICAL APPROACHES FOR BEST PRACTICE 9. Theory Formation and Application in Social Impact Assessment Henk Becker 10. Computer-based Qualitative Data Methods Gerard Fitzgerald 11. Assessing Gender Impacts Bina Srinivasan and Lyla Mehta 12. Socioeconomic Modelling for Estimating Intergenerational Impacts Gijs Dekkers 13. Using Geographic Information Systems for Cultural Impact Assessment Luciano Minerbi, Davianna Pomaika’i McGregor and Jon Kei Matsuoka 14. Vulnerability and Capacity Measurement Mark Fenton, Sheridan Coakes and Nadine Marshall 15. Citizen Values Assessment Annelies Stolp 16. Involving the Public Richard Roberts 17. Handling Complex Societal Problems Dorien DeTombe 18. Environmental Mediation Helen Ross Index
£161.00
Harvard University Press New Geographies, 12: Commons
Book SynopsisThe commons as a contested political idea has been continually articulated and reproduced in many disciplines and in relation to specific historical and geographical contexts. Since the 1960s, the concept of commons has started to play an increasingly important role in the field of urban studies. While commons are usually perceived as the material spaces of the city such as streets, parks, public spaces, etc., they are also perceived as the immaterial public realm—including subaltern and mainstream culture, knowledge, language, and modes of sociality. As the commoning process continuously involves the substance of urban spaces, be it physical or virtual, the concept of commons has actively contributed to reshaping spatial imaginaries such as urban islands, archipelagos, and thresholds.This issue of New Geographies proposes the concept of commons as a mode of thinking that challenges assumptions in the design disciplines such as public and private spaces, local and regional geographies, and capital and state interventions. It expands the production of space as the commons into a planetary territory all the way from the intimate and subjective scale of the body to the connected material and immaterial spaces. In doing so, NG 12 aims to foreground the significance of political thinking in the process of space production, and invites to imagine alternative social relations and modes of urbanization.
£22.91
United Nations Arab development outlook: vision 2030
Book SynopsisThe Arab region is in crisis and it is easy to succumb to pessimism about its future. This report, however, embraces a vision of hope: one that illustrates the many ways in which the region can act to ensure its future security and prosperity. It envisages a day when authoritarianism, occupation, foreign domination and all forms of discrimination end. A vision of human development and economic prosperity implies that citizens are free to voice their opinions and practice their beliefs without fear, the rule of law applies equally to all, and the basic necessities for a decent life are affordable even for the least fortunate. It calls for choices to be made in order to lay the foundations of an inclusive society, so as not to slip further into a spiral of deepening violence, instability and recession that would undermine development for generations to come.This report presents a vision of improved governance, advanced social justice and human well-being, transformed economies, and intensified regional integration; in short, an Arab region at peace, stable and prosperous.
£38.21
NUS Press Marriage Migration in Asia: Emerging Minorities at the Frontiers of Nation-States
Book SynopsisMen are disadvantaged in the marriage markets of many Asian countries, and in some cases their response is to look abroad for a partner. Receiving countries for marriage migrants include Japan, Korea, Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Singapore, while the Philippines, Thailand, Vietnam, Indonesia, and parts of mainland China supply wives to these territories. In the absence of uniform international regulations concerning the rights and obligations of partners, such unions are treated differently in different jurisdiction. In extreme cases migrants or their children become stateless, and when marriages break down, migrants sometimes face major legal problems.In such circumstances, marriage migrants are often portrayed as powerless, uneducated victims. Rejecting this perspective, the authors in this volume explore the agency of women who migrate abroad to acquire opportunities unavailable to them in their homelands. They show that the trajectories of marriage migrants are often not a simple movement from home to destination but can involve return, repeated, or extended migrations, and that these transitions that can alter geographies of power in economics, nationality or ethnicity. Based on features shared by many marriage migrants, the book identifies them as an emerging minority at the frontier of the nation-state, a group whose status may well carry over to future generations.
£26.06
Taylor & Francis Ltd Forecasting Air Travel Demand
a huge range and FREE tracked UK delivery on ALL orders.
£39.99
Taylor & Francis Ltd Futures Beyond Dystopia Creating Social Foresight Futures in Education
a huge range and FREE tracked UK delivery on ALL orders.
£63.64
Taylor & Francis The Planet in 2050
a huge range and FREE tracked UK delivery on ALL orders.
£137.75
Taylor & Francis The Planet in 2050
a huge range and FREE tracked UK delivery on ALL orders.
£43.99
Taylor & Francis Ltd Temporal Politics and Banal Culture
Book SynopsisThis book addresses the absence of a strong alignment with the future in contemporary social life and explores anomalous temporal experience as a way to expand political imaginations. In the aftermath of the modern myth of progress, it argues we have entered into a kind of dystopiabrutal or seemingly benignof the continual present that is resistant to systemic change but is nevertheless animated through cycles of novelty and obsolescence. Exploring a condition in which we are out of ideas and facing a non-future' of blind technical improvement and fear, the author examines the heterochronia of eerie atmospheres and temporal suspensions. Rather than a reinstatement of the great dream of The Future, a temporality of possibility is explored in strange dimensions of otherwise mundane sites: logistic spaces and ex-urban landscapes; boredom connected to digital media; and the material culture of a recently abandoned town. Drawing on contemporary social and cultural theory, as well as urbaTable of ContentsIntroduction 1. Into logistic grey zones 2. Obsolete wastes of time: Boredom by way of alien junk consciousness 3. The enigma of Kitsault
£19.99
Taylor & Francis Ltd Uncertainty and Possibility
Book SynopsisUncertainty and possibility are emerging as both theoretical concepts and fields of empirical investigation, as scholars and practitioners seek new creative, hopeful and speculative modes of understanding and intervening in a world of crisis.This book offers new perspectives on the central issues of uncertainty and possibility, and identifies new research methods which take advantage of disruptive and experimental techniques. Advancing a practical agenda for future making, it reveals how uncertainty can be engaged as a generative technology' for understanding, researching and intervening in the world. Drawing on key themes in creative methodologies, such as making, essaying, inhabiting and attuning, chapters explore contemporary sites of practice. The book looks at maker spaces and technology design, the imaginaries of architectural design, the temporalities of built cultural heritage, and interdisciplinary making and performing. Based on the authors'' own academic work and their appliTrade ReviewA welcome contribution to this disciplinary hybrid ... Provokes a kind of uncertainty that the reader needs to embrace in order to explore the possibilities that the book may generate for the future of design anthropology. Indeed, if this is intended, the book succeeds. And it is, I believe, its key strength. - AnthroposTable of ContentsList of Figures Acknowledgements Author Biographies 1. Approaching Uncertainty 2. What is Uncertainty? 3 Uncertainty as Technology4. Strategies for Disruption, Yoko Akama (RMIT University, Australia), Elisenda Ardevol (Universitat Oberta de Catalunya, Spain), Deborah Lanzeni (RMIT University, RMIT EU, Spain), Ann Light (University of Sussex, UK), Katherine Moline (University of New South Wales: Art & Design, Australia), Sarah Pink (RMIT University, Australia), Shanti Sumartojo (RMIT University, Australia)5. Surrendering to and Tracing Uncertainty, Tom Jackson (University of Leeds, UK), YokoAkama, Sarah Pink, Shanti Sumartojo 6. Uncertainty as Technology for Moving Beyond, David Carlin (RMIT University, Australia),Yoko Akama, Sarah Pink, Shanti Sumartojo 7. Propositions and Practical Applications References Index
£32.99
Cambridge University Press Natural Gas and Geopolitics
a huge range and FREE tracked UK delivery on ALL orders.
£38.52
Cambridge University Press The Futures of Europe
a huge range and FREE tracked UK delivery on ALL orders.
£31.08
Cambridge University Press Predicting the Future
a huge range and FREE tracked UK delivery on ALL orders.
£22.23
HarperCollins Publishers Inc Homo Deus
Book Synopsis
£16.99
HarperCollins Publishers Inc Longpath
Book SynopsisAnd even more provocatively, Wallach challenges readers to ask “to what end?” for civilization at large.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.Trade Review"This perceptive book is an antidote to nearsightedness. Ari Wallach won’t just leave you planning months or years ahead—he challenges you to look generations ahead. Get ready to think and think again." — Adam Grant, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Think Again and host of the TED podcast WorkLife "Reading this book is like joining hands across generations in order to find the hope, drive and imagination necessary for us to build the world we wish to manifest. A world built on justice, spirit and joy." — Ai-jen Poo, President, National Domestic Workers Alliance, author, The Age of Dignity "Ari Wallach has written an essential guide to the 22nd century. You read that right. With the acumen of a futurist and the soul of a rabbi, Wallach shows us that the only effective antidote to the rampant now-ism of the present is to have an urgent conversation about reshaping the far-future. Longpath will make every conversation you have more meaningful." — Bruce Feiler, New York Times-bestselling author of Life Is In The Transitions A brilliant futurist who sees with his whole heart, Wallach shows us how to co-create a future of dignity, justice, and love as daily practice. This book will ignite your agency and lift your gaze to the horizon of possibility. Longpath showed me how to feel future generations’ joy—that joy is now my North Star. Wise, practical, powerful, this is an essential handbook for how to birth the world we dream. — Valarie Kaur, bestselling author of See No Stranger and founder of the Revolutionary Love Project "People who face great oppression—as Ari’s father did are somehow best able to think beyond themselves, seeing ways forward just when every path seems blocked. Black people in America never had the luxury not to see ahead. We thank our ancestors at the same time we strive to become ancestors worth thanking. Longpath will help more people embrace this mindset and the behaviors that go with it. Changing our minds can transform our lives." — Rashad Robinson, President, Color of Change "Like a prophet of old, Ari Wallach offers us an urgently-needed message: While we can’t thank those who came before us, our survival as a species relies on our paying their sacrifices forward. Wallach expertly combines evolutionary biology, psychology, and spiritual wisdom not just to remind us what we owe future generations, but to give us the tools we need to truly become better ancestors." — David DeSteno, author of How God Works "Ari Wallach will change the way you look at time. Longpath offers a thought-provoking perspective on how we carry our ancestral history and how we can shift our thinking from short term reactions to long term responses. What actions will we take if we view it from the perspective of our great-great grandchildren?" — Sharon Salzberg, author of Lovingkindness "Ari Wallach’s approach to being great ancestors is an antidote to the addled, unsustainable traps of short term thinking. Philosophically deep and practical, timeless and urgent, Wallach's message is one we need more than ever. Take it in; your descendants will be glad you did." — Jamil Zaki, Ph.D., Director, Stanford Social Neuroscience Lab, author of The War for Kindness "Longpath is a radical call to expand the window of our attention. In doing so, we shift our thinking and behavior, making us better, happier people." — Amishi Jha, Professor and author of Peak Mind "By cultivating what Wallach designates the Longpath way of living, we have direction for how to get beyond short-term decision making rooted in myopic opportunism. A poetic master of creative metaphor, Wallach invites us all to join in the Longpath journey, for species survival yes, but no less because this is a joyful and fulfilling way of living our lives together!" — Daniel Liechty, author of Facing Up To Mortality and Transference and Transcendence "I loved this book for its authenticity and audacity. Longpath not only helped me envision a brighter future, but also to improve how I can be a more effective leader in the present. This is a playbook that anyone can leverage right now to achieve world changing results. It’s an impressive feat and makes Longpath a must-read." — Jonathan Greenblatt, CEO and National Director, Anti-Defamation League (ADL) "Ari Wallach challenges practices that incentivize harming our future. Providing helpful tools and anecdotes, Wallach wisely guides readers into making personal and professional decisions with awareness of long term impact – decisions that will enrich our being and one day make our far off descendants proud." — Ytasha L. Womack, author of Afrofuturism "Like Victor E. Frankl in Man's Search for Meaning, Ari Wallach gives us a roadmap to finding meaning and hope in this moment between what was and what will be with the deep insights and provocations one would expect from not just a futurist, but a father who cares deeply about the world we will leave behind to our descendants." — Alec Ross, New York Times bestselling author of Industries of the Future and The Raging 2020s "Albert Einstein observed that we cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them. Ari Wallach’s Longpath provides a clear way to think differently, so that we can better address the issues of our time." — Jonathan Rose, author of The Well-Tempered City and co-founder of the Garrison Institute and President of Rose Companies "What kind of world do we want our children and grandchildren to inherit? Ari Wallach refocuses us on this critical question, which our forebears once weighed more mightily than we do today. Becoming a great ancestor requires not only navigating ever-present crises, but imagining the world as it could be through one's everyday philosophy and choices." — Laurence C. Smith, author of The World in 2050, John Atwater and Diana Nelson University Professor of Environmental Studies and Professor of Earth, Environmental and Planetary Sciences at Brown University "In a turbulent world, Longpath offers a moving, trenchant guide for anyone seeking to close the gap between the world as it is and the world as it should be." — Hahrie Han, Stavros Niarchos Foundation Professor of Political Science, Director, SNF Agora Institute, Johns Hopkins University, author of Prisms of the People "Ari Wallach’s Longpath is a timely reminder that even as acute challenges draw our attention, it is essential to take the long view if we are to achieve the shared vision of a just and sustainable world. At a time when resilience is an imperative, and not just a buzzword, Longpath provides a pathway to making it a reality." — Aron Cramer, President and CEO, BSR "In the context of a time that is hyperconnected, yet fractured, filled with both transformational change and anxiety, Ari Wallach gives us a compelling roadmap forward, a manifesto for shifting our mindset from the short to the long term—bringing us from the past to the present to a better future we still have the chance to co-create, with even our smallest decisions and interactions." — Asha Curran, CEO, GivingTuesday Brilliantly weaving together rationality and spirituality, Longpath offers a new lens through which we can all imagine and shape the future. — Adam Bly, Founder & CEO of System "Ari Wallach has become our trusted guide to the future and Longpath is our roadmap. Longpath is not a “mindfulness time out,” but “a frame of mind” for living. Wallach's storytelling gently and persistently moves us to realize that, like the butterfly whose flap of wings caused a storm miles away, our daily actions are building out the future for the generations to follow." — Sudhir Venkatesh, William B. Ransford Professor of Sociology & African-American Studies at Columbia University "What if we took the time to extend empathy and care to the generations that came before us? And how about generations that will come after us? In this heart-stretching, time-bending invitation, futurist Ari Wallach pushes us to widen our circle of concern by seeing ourselves as links on an intergenerational chain. Longpathism is a clarion call: it’s on us to make sure the future of humankind is not characterized by the loneliness, alienation, and divisiveness we’re living amidst today." — Jenn Hoos Rothberg, Executive Director of Einhorn Collaborative "Sometimes all it takes to change your life is to see it from a different perspective. Ari Wallach’s Longpath blows through conventional thinking and opens up a world where each and every one of us can carefully consider how the choices we make today can impact the future. If you are reconsidering your life choices, this book will illuminate the path forward." — Kathryn Murdoch, Co-Founder and President, Quadrivium Foundation "When I hear the word ‘futurist,’ I expect jetpacks and meal-replacement pills. But Wallach isn’t that kind of futurist. In this striking and insightful book, Wallach takes us back in time to see the longer picture. We emerge liberated from our small sense of time and endowed with the responsibility of being a future ancestor." — Casper ter Kuile, author of The Power of Ritual "A new framework for thinking about our decision-making patterns, with empathy at the center of all." — Chade-Meng Tan, author of Search Inside Yourself "Short-term thinking is enticing and may even feel good up front, but more often than not, it ends up causing harm down the road. Wallach compellingly argues that our biggest challenges require playing the long game, and he shows us how to get started. We’ve got no time to waste." — Brad Stulberg, author of The Practice of Groundedness Longpath - blending psychological, emotional and even spiritual development - offers a crucial blueprint and inspirational call to action: to create the futures that we want for ourselves and our descendants. — Hollie Russon Gilman, Senior Fellow at New America and Affiliate Fellow at Harvard's Ash Center for Democratic Governance and Innovation "Written with brilliance, beauty, and no shortage of soul, Longpath is the most important and hopeful guide to the future we can start building today." — David Sax, bestselling author of The Revenge of Analog and The Future is Analog "Longpath is a way to think about the future — that you can use today. I expected it to be about planning for the future but loved that it's about how to live now. Ari's voice is warm, fresh and powerful… This is a very important book." — Scott Heiferman, Co-founder of Meetup “This new mindset is one that has us pause and relax a bit. It has us reflect on the world we’re creating with our day-to-day craziness of never-ending to dos that rob us of the opportunity to envision something better, for us, but also for future generations.” — Forbes "Longpath will leave you reevaluating your path and priorities in a positive way." — Rich Roll Podcast "Longpath teaches you how to heal from your past to pave the way for a brighter future, the importance of paying attention to the long game, and how to visualize your future successes." — Lewis Howes, The School of Greatness podcast
£19.00
Penguin Putnam Inc The Singularity Is Near
Book Synopsis“Startling in scope and bravado.” —Janet Maslin, The New York Times“Artfully envisions a breathtakingly better world.” —Los Angeles Times“Elaborate, smart and persuasive.” —The Boston Globe“A pleasure to read.” —The Wall Street JournalOne of CBS News’s Best Fall Books of 2005 • Among St Louis Post-Dispatch’s Best Nonfiction Books of 2005 • One of Amazon.com’s Best Science Books of 2005A radical and optimistic view of the future course of human development from the bestselling author of How to Create a Mind and The Singularity is Nearer who Bill Gates calls “the best person I know at predicting the future of artificial intelligence”For over tTrade Review“Anyone can grasp Mr. Kurzweil’s main idea: that mankind’s technological knowledge has been snowballing, with dizzying prospects for the future. The basics are clearly expressed. But for those more knowledgeable and inquisitive, the author argues his case in fascinating detail . . . . The Singularity Is Near is startling in scope and bravado.”—Janet Maslin, The New York Times“Filled with imaginative, scientifically grounded speculation . . . . The Singularity Is Near is worth reading just for its wealth of information, all lucidly presented . . . . [It’s] an important book. Not everything that Kurzweil predicts may come to pass, but a lot of it will, and even if you don’t agree with everything he says, it’s all worth paying attention to.”—The Philadelphia Inquirer“[An] exhilarating and terrifyingly deep look at where we are headed as a species . . . . Mr. Kurzweil is a brilliant scientist and futurist, and he makes a compelling and, indeed, a very moving case for his view of the future.”—The New York Sun“Compelling.”—San Jose Mercury News“Kurzweil links a projected ascendance of artificial intelligence to the future of the evolutionary process itself. The result is both frightening and enlightening . . . . The Singularity Is Near is a kind of encyclopedic map of what Bill Gates once called ‘the road ahead.’”—The Oregonian“A clear-eyed, sharply-focused vision of the not-so-distant future.”—The Baltimore Sun“This book offers three things that will make it a seminal document. 1) It brokers a new idea, not widely known, 2) The idea is about as big as you can get: the Singularity—all the change in the last million years will be superceded by the change in the next five minutes, and 3) It is an idea that demands informed response. The book’s claims are so footnoted, documented, graphed, argued, and plausible in small detail, that it requires the equal in response. Yet its claims are so outrageous that if true, it would mean . . . well . . . the end of the world as we know it, and the beginning of utopia. Ray Kurzweil has taken all the strands of the Singularity meme circulating in the last decades and has united them into a single tome which he has nailed on our front door. I suspect this will be one of the most cited books of the decade. Like Paul Ehrlich’s upsetting 1972 book Population Bomb, fan or foe, it’s the wave at epicenter you have to start with.”—Kevin Kelly, founder of Wired“Really, really out there. Delightfully so.”—Businessweek.com“Stunning, utopian vision of the near future when machine intelligence outpaces the biological brain and what things may look like when that happens . . . . Approachable and engaging.”—the unofficial Microsoft blog“One of the most important thinkers of our time, Kurzweil has followed up his earlier works . . . with a work of startling breadth and audacious scope.”—newmediamusings.com“An attractive picture of a plausible future.”—Kirkus Reviews“Kurzweil is a true scientist—a large-minded one at that . . . . What’s arresting isn’t the degree to which Kurzweil’s heady and bracing vision fails to convince—given the scope of his projections, that’s inevitable—but the degree to which it seems downright plausible.”—Publishers Weekly (starred review)“[T]hroughout this tour de force of boundless technological optimism, one is impressed by the author’s adamantine intellectual integrity . . . . If you are at all interested in the evolution of technology in this century and its consequences for the humans who are creating it, this is certainly a book you should read.”—John Walker, inventor of Autodesk, in Fourmilab Change Log“Ray Kurzweil is the best person I know at predicting the future of artificial intelligence. His intriguing new book envisions a future in which information technologies have advanced so far and fast that they enable humanity to transcend its biological limitations—transforming our lives in ways we can’t yet imagine.”—Bill Gates“If you have ever wondered about the nature and impact of the next profound discontinuities that will fundamentally change the way we live, work, and perceive our world, read this book. Kurzweil’s Singularity is a tour de force, imagining the unimaginable and eloquently exploring the coming disruptive events that will alter our fundamental perspectives as significantly as did electricity and the computer.”—Dean Kamen, recipient of the National Medal of Technology, physicist, and inventor of the first wearable insulin pump, the HomeChoice portable dialysis machine, the IBOT Mobility System, and the Segway Human Transporter“One of our leading AI practitioners, Ray Kurzweil, has once again created a ‘must read’ book for anyone interested in the future of science, the social impact of technology, and indeed the future of our species. His thought-provoking book envisages a future in which we transcend our biological limitations, while making a compelling case that a human civilization with superhuman capabilities is closer at hand than most people realize.”—Raj Reddy, founding director of the Robotics Institute at Carnegie Mellon University and recipient of the Turing Award from the Association for Computing Machinery“Ray’s optimistic book well merits both reading and thoughtful response. For those like myself whose views differ from Ray’s on the balance of promise and peril, The Singularity Is Near is a clear call for a continuing dialogue to address the greater concerns arising from these accelerating possibilities.”—Bill Joy, cofounder and former chief scientist, Sun Microsystems
£22.10
MIT Press Ltd The Distributed Classroom Learning in LargeScale
Book SynopsisA vision of the future of education in which the classroom experience is distributed across space and time without compromising learning.What if there were a model for learning in which the classroom experience was distributed across space and time--and students could still have the benefits of the traditional classroom, even if they can't be present physically or learn synchronously? In this book, two experts in online learning envision a future in which education from kindergarten through graduate school need not be tethered to a single physical classroom. The distributed classroom would neither sacrifice students' social learning experience nor require massive development resources. It goes beyond hybrid learning, so ubiquitous during the COVID-19 pandemic, and MOOCs, so trendy a few years ago, to reimagine the classroom itself. David Joyner and Charles Isbell, both of Georgia Tech, explain how recent developments, including distance learning and learning mana
£22.95
MIT Press The Anthropocene Cookbook Recipes and
Book SynopsisMore than sixty speculative art and design projects explore how art, food, and creative thinking can prepare us for future catastrophes.In the Age of the Anthropocene—an era characterized by human-caused climate disaster—catastrophes and dystopias loom. The Anthropocene Cookbook takes our planetary state of emergency as an opportunity to seize the moment to imagine constructive change and new ideas. How can we survive in an age of constant environmental crises? How can we thrive? The Anthropocene Cookbook answers these questions by presenting a series of investigative art and design projects that explore how art, food, and creative thinking can prepare us for future catastrophes. This cookbook of ideas rethinks our eating habits and traditions, challenges our food taboos, and proposes new recipes for humanity’s survival.These more than sixty projects propose new ways to think and make food, offering tools for creative action rather
£27.20
MIT Press Ltd Global Catastrophes and Trends The Next Fifty
Book SynopsisA wide-ranging, interdisciplinary look at global changes that may occur over the next fifty years—whether sudden and cataclysmic world-changing events or gradually unfolding trends.Fundamental change occurs most often in one of two ways: as a “fatal discontinuity,” a sudden catastrophic event that is potentially world changing, or as a persistent, gradual trend. Global catastrophes include volcanic eruptions, viral pandemics, wars, and large-scale terrorist attacks; trends are demographic, environmental, economic, and political shifts that unfold over time. In this provocative book, scientist Vaclav Smil takes a wide-ranging, interdisciplinary look at the catastrophes and trends the next fifty years may bring.Smil first looks at rare but cataclysmic events, both natural and human-produced, then at trends of global importance, including the transition from fossil fuels to other energy sources and growing economic and social inequality. He also consider
£19.55
MIT Press Ltd The Future
Book Synopsis
£999.99
MIT Press Ltd Human Frontiers
Book Synopsis
£16.96
Random House USA Inc The Next Fifty Years
Book SynopsisA brilliant ensemble of the world’s most visionary scientists provides twenty-five original never-before-published essays about the advances in science and technology that we may see within our lifetimes.Theoretical physicist and bestselling author Paul Davies examines the likelihood that by the year 2050 we will be able to establish a continuing human presence on Mars. Psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi investigates the ramifications of engineering high-IQ, geneticially happy babies. Psychiatrist Nancy Etcoff explains current research into the creation of emotion-sensing jewelry that could gauge our moods and tell us when to take an anti-depressant pill. And evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins explores the probability that we will soon be able to obtain a genome printout that predicts our natural end for the same cost as a chest x-ray. (Will we want to read it? And will insurance companies and governments have access to it?) This fascinating and unprecedented boo
£14.40
Diversified Publishing The Singularity Is Nearer
Book Synopsis
£22.05
The History Press Ltd The Great Melt
Book SynopsisThe fate of the world’s coasts rests on a knife edge as global warming melts ice sheets and glaciers from the Alps to the Andes. The choices we make now will determine whether oceans rise by a coast-swamping one metre by 2100 or whether we can save our coastal communities.
£20.00
Johns Hopkins University Press Yesterdays Tomorrows Past Visions of the
Book SynopsisFrom Jules Verne to the Jetsons, from a 500-passenger flying wing to an anti-aircraft flying buzz-saw, the vision of the future as seen through the eyes of the past demonstrates the play of the American imagination on the canvas of the future.Trade ReviewWhether it involves gleaming mega-cities, scudding unflawed skies or the inane advertising smile of a man who just loves his personal flying machine, watching Americans look forward is to look back. It is to look at ourselves in our most brilliant and boneheaded moments. Which is great fun. Here, moreover, the fun is enhanced by a cheerful... text and-the real glory-a wonderful abundance of visual material drawn from a Smithsonian traveling exhibit. Boston Globe Many books might be commended as entertaining, instructive, or even fascinating. Yesterday's Tomorrows deserves each of these adjectives... The reader is taken through a gallery populated with forgotten industrial prototypes, architectural models, toy ray guns, flying cavalrymen on 'helihorses,' science fiction props from Hollywood and, or course, all sorts of projects and renderings concerning transportation. Road and TrackTable of ContentsForewordPrefaceChapter 1. Finding the FutureChapter 2. The Community of TomorrowChapter 3. The Home of TomorrowChapter 4. The Transportation of TomorrowChapter 5. The Weapons and Warfare of TomorrowEpilogue Catalogue ListSuggested ReadingIndex
£31.50
Whitford Press,U.S. Brad Steiger Predicts the Future
Book Synopsis
£9.49
