Showing titles in Future Studies

A century ago very few people dreamed of space travel. Today it is the most daring and technologically sophisticated quest ever undertaken, being driven not just by government agencies such as NASA and ESA, but also by visionaries such as Richard Branson (Virgin Galactic), Elon Musk (SpaceX) and Jeff Bezos (Blue Origin). To mark the 50th anniversary of the 1969 moon landing, this major drama-documentary series charts the definitive story of the past, present and future of humankind’s exploration of space. The Space Race is narrated by Kate Mulgrew and features a full cast.

Peter Frase argues that increasing automation and a growing scarcity of resources, thanks to climate change, will bring it all tumbling down. In Four Futures, Frase imagines how this postcapitalist world might look, deploying the tools of both social science and speculative fiction to explore what communism, rentism, socialism, and exterminism might actually entail.

In the near future, wars will be fought not over land, but over data. Machines will quickly discover individualized treatments for diseases, and with the help of virtual reality, AI will inspect buildings that have not yet been built. With the rising interest in these technologies by both China and the US, who will emerge as the victor of this technological race? When AI Rules the World is an investigation and call to action into AI technologies for a nation that does not yet comprehend the full gravity of the AI revolution. 

As seen on Oprah’s Super Soul Sunday A beacon of hope in the face of our current world crises, this uplifting book demonstrates how embracing our interconnectedness is key to world transformation In a time of social and ecological crisis, what can we as individuals do to make the world a...

When we think about the future, it can be difficult to feel that we have any control. We aren't confident that we can take actions and make decisions that help determine what happens next. We want to feel prepared, hopeful and equipped and to face the future with optimism. Or, better yet, change the future. But how do we map out our lives when it feels impossible to predict what the world will be like next week, let alone next year? Jane McGonigal, a renowned future forecaster, reveals that 'unimaginable' events aren't unimaginable before they happen. 

Rabbi Jonathan Sacks speaks to the world's leading thinkers about morality today. In this fascinating series, Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks explores what morality means, speaking with globally renowned thinkers, as well as voices from the next generation. From Steven Pinker and Robert Putnam to Melinda Gates and Jordan Peterson, the guests discuss the free market and the financial crash, selfies and social media, individuals and tribalism, artificial intelligence, role models, and rediscovering politics of the common good.

For fans of Everything Is F*cked and Against Purity: Living Ethically in Compromised Times, a book about facing the multiple crises of modernity--and hospicing modernity--with maturity, humility, and integrity. This book is not easy: it contains no quick-fix plan for a better, brighter tomorrow...

Brought to you by Penguin. How do we raise children in a climate emergency? What should we teach them - and what kind of future are we preparing them for? Ben Rawlence began writing to his eldest daughter before she was born, trying to understand what it means to bring a child into a world...

Are we driving off a digital cliff and heading for disaster, unable to focus, maintain concentration, or form the human bonds that make life worth living? Are media and business doomed and about to be replaced by amateur hour? The world, as Nick Bilton—with tongue-in-cheek—shows, has been...

A 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...

David Christian, historian and best-selling author of Origin Story, is renowned for pioneering the emerging discipline of Big History, which surveys the whole of the past. But with Future Stories, he casts his sharp analytical eye forward, offering an introduction to the strange world of the future, and a guide to what we think we know about it at all scales, from the predictive mechanisms of single-celled organisms and tomato plants to the merging of colossal galaxies billions of years from now. 

Brought to you by Penguin. A radical retelling of human history through collapse – from the dawn of our species to the urgent existential threats of the twenty-first century and beyond. ‘A brilliant, utterly convincing account of the evolution of human society and why we are probably...

Brought to you by Penguin. From cyborgs, starships, UFOs, aliens and antimatter to telepathy, invisibility, psychokinesis and precognition, Michio Kaku's Physics of the Impossible is an exciting look at how science fiction could soon become science fact. Albert Einstein said, 'If at first an...

In Footprints, David Farrier explores what traces we will leave for the very deep future. From long-lived materials like plastic and nuclear waste, to the 50 million kilometres of roads spanning the planet, in modern times we have created numerous objects and landscapes with the potential to endure through deep time. Our carbon could linger in the atmosphere for 100,000 years, and the remains of our cities will still exist millions of years from now as a layer in the rock.

'MAGNIFICENT' GUARDIAN 'A TOWERING ACHIEVEMENT' FINANCIAL TIMES 'INVENTIVE, BOLD, UNEXPECTED' THE SUNDAY TIMES 'Everything that makes the novel worthwhile and engaging is here' Guardian 'Not since William Boyd's Any Human Heart has a novel captured a single life with such invention and...

Brought to you by Penguin. WINNER OF THE ROYAL SOCIETY TRIVEDI SCIENCE BOOK PRIZE 2024 ONE OF THE TIMES, SUNDAY TIMES AND NEW SCIENTIST BEST SCIENCE BOOKS OF THE YEAR GUARDIAN BEST SCIENCE AND NATURE BOOK 2024 A HUGO AWARD WINNER FOR BEST RELATED WORK 2024 THE INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLER From the...

Read by the author, Henry Gee. 'Brilliant' – The Times 'Hugely informative and entertaining' – New Scientist 'Put this at the head of your reading lists immediately' – Eric Idle From the winner of the 2022 Royal Society Science Book Prize, a thrilling and thought-provoking account of the...

"A gifted and thoughtful writer, Metzl brings us to the frontiers of biology and technology, and reveals a world full of promise and peril." —Siddhartha Mukherjee MD, New York Times bestselling author of The Emperor of All Maladies and The Gene A groundbreaking exploration of genetic...

If you want to improve your life, health and happiness you need to upgrade the fundamentals: sleep, nutrition, exercise, work and the mind. And the best way to do this is through applying science, nutrition and even technology to these areas of our lives - the art known as 'biohacking'. But...

Zerstört KI die Kunst? Macht sie uns alle arbeitslos? Die Vorbehalte gegen KI sind riesig, die Debatte bewegt sich oft nah am Weltuntergang. Die Chancen sind allerdings ebenso riesig, wenn man sie denn vor lauter Angst sehen kann. KI-Erklärer Andreas O. Loff beantwortet alle Fragen, die ihm immer wieder gestellt werden und zeigt, welche Maßnahmen die Politik jetzt ergreifen muss. Dabei kommen Risiken genauso zur Sprache wie die Möglichkeiten in der Welt von morgen, etwa wie KI-Modelle Menschen helfen, Großartiges zu schaffen, Benachteiligungen abzubauen und sozialen Aufstieg ermöglichen.