Social forecasting, future studies Books
Whitford Press,U.S. A Look at Tomorrow Today
Book Synopsis
£17.09
Holt McDougal Falter
Book SynopsisThirty years ago Bill McKibben offered one of the earliest warnings about climate change. Now he broadens the warning: the entire human game, he suggests, has begun to play itself out.Bill McKibben's groundbreaking book The End of Nature -- issued in dozens of languages and long regarded as a classic -- was the first book to alert us to global warming. But the danger is broader than that: even as climate change shrinks the space where our civilization can exist, new technologies like artificial intelligence and robotics threaten to bleach away the variety of human experience. Falter tells the story of these converging trends and of the ideological fervor that keeps us from bringing them under control. And then, drawing on McKibben's experience in building 350.org, the first truly global citizens movement to combat climate change, it offers some possible ways out of the trap. We're at a bleak moment in human history -- and we'll either confront th
£14.45
Holt McDougal At Home on an Unruly Planet
Book SynopsisOne of Kirkus Reviews'' 100 Best Nonfiction Books of 2022A gold Nautilus Book Award winner, Ecology & EnvironmentFrom rural Alaska to coastal Florida, a vivid account of Americans working to protect the places they call home in an era of climate crisisHow do we find a sense of home and rootedness in a time of unprecedented upheaval? What happens when the seasons and rhythms in which we have built our lives go off-kilter?Once a distant forecast, climate change is now reaching into the familiar, threatening our basic safety and forcing us to reexamine who we are and how we live. In At Home on an Unruly Planet, science journalist Madeline Ostrander reflects on this crisis not as an abstract scientific or political problem but as a palpable force that is now affecting all of us at home. She offers vivid accounts of people fighting to protect places they love from increasingly dangerous circumstances. A firefighter wor
£16.99
Grand Central Publishing The Skeptics Guide to the Future
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£15.29
Origin Press,USA Human Purpose and Transhuman Potential: A Cosmic
Book Synopsis
£18.99
Other Press (NY) Mindless
Book SynopsisThis sweeping history of humanity’s relationship with machines illuminates how we got here and what happens next, with AI, climate change, and beyond.Faith in technological fixes for our problems is waning. Automation, which promised relief from toil, has reactivated the long-standing fear of job redundancy. Information technology, meant to liberate us from traditional authority, is placing unprecedented powers of surveillance and control in the hands of a purely secular Big Brother. And for the first time, artificial intelligence threatens anthropogenic disaster—disaster caused by our own activities. Scientists join imaginative writers in warning us of the fate of Icarus, whose wings melted because he flew too close to the sun.This book tells the story of our fractured relationship with machines from humanity’s first tools down to the present and into the future. It raises the crucial question of why some parts of the world developed a “machine civilization” and not others, and traces the interactions between capitalism and technology, and between science and religion, in the making of the modern world.Taking in the peaks of philosophy and triumphs of science, the foundation of economics and speculations of fiction, Robert Skidelsky embarks on a bold intellectual journey through the evolution of our understanding of technology and what this means for our lives and politics.
£21.09
Experiment What the Future Looks Like: Scientists Predict
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£11.39
Experiment How to Save the World for Just a Trillion
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£12.34
Guernica Editions,Canada Surviving the Apocalypse Volume 27: Understanding
Book SynopsisAlmost daily scientists are sounding dire warnings about the effects of climate change. Our young will bear an unprecedented burden. They are eager to discover what can be done, as time slips away. But few of them – or us – are aware that global warming is but one facet of a looming planetary catastrophe. Most of the natural and social systems humans depend on for survival are also in various stages of collapse. Each failure will impact the other systems, including climate, in a series of feedback loops that can unleash a virtual tsunami of destruction, and do so far sooner than climate scientists, looking only at their own discipline, predict. The corona virus pandemic has shown how unprepared we are. Multiply its effects times 10, times 50, to get an idea of what's coming. We have entered what scientists term a "critical state," at the brink of an unstable precipice. The smallest push or pull, from any direction, could suddenly topple us. Despite the global scale of the emergency, its root causes are predominantly human and surprisingly simple. With courage to act, we can slow the devastating cascade and, perhaps, even reverse some of the worst impacts.
£17.05
Penguin Random House South Africa Thinking the Future: New Perspectives From the
Book SynopsisDo you know how to think about the future? All our decisions are about the future, whether it’s tomorrow, next year or the next decade, yet our choices are often undermined by desires, expectations and common mental mistakes – making assumptions, worrying about things we can’t control, missing signals because we’re distracted by the noise. But if you can learn how to think, you can learn how to look ahead. Isaac Newton said: ‘If I have seen further than others, it is by standing on the shoulders of giants.’ In Thinking the Future, Clem Sunter and Mitch Ilbury teach us the futurist’s art of decision-making by reimagining seminal concepts from some of history’s greatest thinkers. They encourage foxy, flexible mindsets and reject the popular but misleading self-help tenet that you can decide your fate through the relentless pursuit of a single goal. An uncertain world demands a more dynamic approach. The point is not to forecast one outcome but to plot multiple scenarios of what could happen. Using scenario-planning techniques, we can all harness the power to work towards the future we want, avoid the ones we don’t, and prepare ourselves for the possible risks and opportunities no matter what transpires.
£12.99
Laurence King Publishing The Trend Forecaster's Handbook
Book Synopsis
£33.25
Verso Books Against Creativity
Book SynopsisFrom line managers, corporate CEOs, urban designers, teachers, politicians, mayors, advertisers and even our friends and family, the message is 'be creative'. Creativity is heralded as the driving force of our contemporary society; celebrated as agile, progressive and liberating. It is the spring of the knowledge economy and shapes the cities we inhabit. It even defines our politics. What could possibly be wrong with this?In this brilliant, counter intuitive blast Oli Mould demands that we rethink the story we are being sold. Behind the novelty, he shows that creativity is a barely hidden form of neoliberal appropriation. It is a regime that prioritizes individual success over collective flourishing. It refuses to recognise anything - job, place, person - that is not profitable. And it impacts on everything around us: the places where we work, the way we are managed, how we spend our leisure time. Is there an alternative? Mould offers a radical redefinition of creativity, one embedded in the idea of collective flourishing, outside the tyranny of profit. Bold, passionate and refreshing, Against Creativity, is a timely correction to the doctrine of our times.Trade ReviewSuperb, thought-provoking. Mould turns the notion of the 'creative worker' on its head. * Pop Matters *A blistering critique . a pointed polemic that makes frequent and telling connections between creativity and social inequalities. -- David Beer * OpenDemocracy *This book mixes personal experience and sharp sociological analysis in a highly entertaining takedown of one of today's most important ideological tropes: creativity. Oli Mould takes the reader on a rather intimate tour behind the flashy scene of creative work, creative people, creative politics, creative technology and, of course, the creative city. Fortunately, he doesn't leave us in the real dystopia we discover along the way but shows us that a truly creative world is possible. -- Sebastian Olma, author of In Defence of SerendipityFor the past 20 years, creativity has been ubiquitous, an essential part of designs for office interiors, inner-city makeovers, and boosterish attempts by governments to redescribe precarious parts of their economies. It needs to be taken seriously - but it also, arguably, needs to be taken down. In this provocative, and often funny book, Oli Mould points up the absurdities of the creative economy, and some ways we might think beyond creativity. -- Richard J. Williams, Professor of Contemporary Visual Cultures, University of EdinburghThere are few personal and collective traits that are prized more highly in neoliberal societies than 'creativity'. In this powerful and well-aimed critique, Oli Mould lifts the veil on this ideology, to reveal a set of economic and political forces, pushing all of us to bend to the needs of capital. -- Will Davies, author of Nervous States[A] bold plea for truly creative urban thought and action . Creative, that is, in a wide range of subversive but always social ways, and not only outside but against the softly suffocating hegemony of authorized versions of the Creative-Cities script, in all its banal ubiquity. Not before time, this is the creative city turned upside down. * Jamie Peck, Canada Research Chair in Urban & Regional Political Economy and Professor of Geography, University of British Columbia [Praise for Urban Subversion and the Creative City] *Thorough, engaging and critical in spirit, and is packed full of theoretical insights and colourful examples of what the author calls 'urban subversion'. Mould is keenly immersed in his subject matter, and his enthusiasm for it is both obvious and infectious. This is a book which every human geography and urban sociology student should read, and would enjoy at the same time * Robert Hollands, Newcastle University, UK [Praise for Urban Subversion and the Creative City] *In this fascinating, meticulously researched, truly global book, Oli Mould introduces us to the creative city of subversion and desire. A much needed act of liberation from the official terrain occupied by the creative class. * Professor Roger Keil, Faculty of Environmental Studies, York University [Praise for Urban Subversion and the Creative City] *
£14.99
Verso Books The Twenty-First Century Will Be American
Book SynopsisAllegations that America is in decline have become commonplace in the years since the Cold War ended in victory for the United States: Washington, it is said, is doomed to founder in decadence, like an imperial Rome collapsing under the weight of its armies. This thesis is energetically refuted by Alfredo Valladao. America, he believes, will dominate the twenty-first century because it alone has the means - and the will - to do so. It alone possesses the three qualities needed for supreme power: unequalled military force, the biggest and most dynamic economy on the planet, and a culture with universal ambitions. The author traces the course of history from the proclamation of Independence to the present-day metamorphosis into World-America. The prophets of decline, argues Valladao, are a century or two adrift: if a historical analogy must be made, it should be with Rome in triumph after its total victory over Carthage-the Roman Republic pregnant with an empire.Trade ReviewAn imaginative, iconoclastic, persuasive and very perceptive assessment both of America itself and of america's unique global role. -- Zbigniew BrzezinskiFor Americans, viewing their history through Valladao's Brazilian lens may prove particularly enlightening, offering a new perspective on familiar events. Whether your interest is business or politics, add this one to your library. * Executive Book Summaries *One might expect a Brazilian living in Paris to treat 'the great mutation' with a certain reserved scepticism. Not so. Valladao is optimistic about the ability of the empire, if properly managed, to win the consent of the peoples making up 'the federation for free nations'. This imaginative and thought-provoking study is well worth attention. * Foreign Affairs *This striking, original, and thoughtful essay on the changing nature of America's global dominance is something of a landmark on the long pilgrimage of the New Left towards accepting, understanding, and finally appreciating the country they once patronised and despised. * The Tribune *
£12.00
Parkhurst Brothers Publishers Inc The Chicken Came First: A Primer for Renewing and
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£999.99
Myers Education Press Intra-Public Intellectualism: Critical
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£121.60
Myers Education Press Intra-Public Intellectualism: Critical
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£32.00
Penguin Random House Grupo Editorial El futuro de la humanidad / The Future of
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£15.26
B (Ediciones B) El planeta vacío Empty Planet
Book Synopsis
£25.32
