Showing titles in Future Studies

Penguin presents the unabridged, downloadable audiobook edition of The Future of the Mind by Michio Kaku, The international bestselling author of Physics of the Impossible. Read by the actor Feodor Chin. Recording memories, mind reading, videotaping our dreams, mind control, avatars, and...

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...

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...

Our predictions of the future are a wild fantasy, inextricably linked to our present hopes and fears, biases and ignorance. Whether they be the outlandish leaps predicted in the 1920s, like multi-purpose utility belts with climate control capabilities and planes the size of luxury cruise ships, or the forecasts of the '60s, which didn't anticipate the sexual revolution or women's liberation, the path to the present is littered with failed predictions and incorrect estimations. The best we can do is try to absorb from futurism's checkered past, perhaps learning to do a little better.

Brought to you by Penguin. Imagination and creativity are at the root of every uniquely human achievement and those achievements have brought us to this present moment. We are now the largest population in human history: seven and half billion people, rising to nine billion by 2050. Our...

What leads to political turbulence and social breakdown? How do elites maintain their dominant position? And why do ruling classes sometimes suddenly lose their grip on power? For decades, complexity scientist Peter Turchin has been studying world history like no one else. Assembling vast databases mined from 10,000 years of human activity, and then developing new models, he has transformed the way we learn from the past. End Times is the result: a ground-breaking account of how society works.

Brought to you by Penguin. Stunning advances in digital technology have introduced a new wave of human-like AI systems. Chatbots like ChatGPT, Claude, and Gemini are already reshaping economies, challenge democracies, and reshaping society in unpredictable ways. And soon, these AI systems could...

'Book of the Year' as chosen by The Conversation 'Disconcerting . . . a disturbing and important book' NEW SCIENTIST 'Smart and wonderfully readable' NEW YORK TIMES The bad science and sinister ideas behind Silicon Valley's foolish obsession with immortality, AI paradise and limitless growth...

Everyone would benefit from seeing further into the future, whether buying stocks, crafting policy, launching a new product, or simply planning the week's meals. Unfortunately, people tend to be terrible forecasters. As Wharton professor Philip Tetlock showed in a landmark 2005 study, even experts' predictions are only slightly better than chance. However, an important and underreported conclusion of that study was that some experts do have real foresight.

Brought to you by Penguin. Gold (noun): A precious, yellow metal, prized for its beauty. Inert, immune to corrosion, highly malleable though with little utility. Seen as pure wealth. The definitive biography of the metal that has shaped our world – and may yet determine its fate. The Secret...

Brought to you by Penguin. What would a fair and equal society actually look like? The world-renowned economist and bestselling author Yanis Varoufakis presents his radical and subversive answer. Imagine it is 2025. Years earlier, in the wake of the financial crisis of 2008, a global hi-tech...

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...

'A profound, intriguing, and important book that reveals as much about human nature as the remarkable power of the brain. Every insight comes to life through real-world examples of the potential and the pitfalls of the hidden patterns all around us. I loved it.' Susie Dent 'I was amazed, reading...

The definitive investigation into why – across continents, classes, cultures and religions – we’re having fewer children, by an award-winning journalist In Britain, one in five couples have no children, and almost half of all families have only one. The populations of China, Japan, Russia...

A bold re-examination of the past, present, and future of humanity, Stellar challenges conventional thinking and offers a vision of hope and optimism—a necessary antidote to the fear and despair that define our times. Stellar uncovers the root causes of today’s biggest challenges, from war and economic instability to inequality and environmental collapse. It reveals why solutions to these issues are little more than band-aids, why our political and economic structures are failing, and how to unlock humanity’s full potential.

According to even the most conservative estimates, China will overtake the United States as the world's largest economy by 2027 and will ascend to the position of world economic leader by 2050. But the full repercussions of China's ascendancy-for itself and the rest of the globe-have been surprisingly little explained or understood.

There are an infinite number of possible futures that lie ahead of us—like threads stretching out into the distance. Rob Hopkins, cofounder of the international Transition Network movement, invites us to travel to future worlds we would actually want to live in.

In 1968, Stewart Brand declared: 'We are as gods - and we might as well get good at it.' Half a century later, that prophecy has come true. We can rewrite genes, edit embryos, build artificial minds, extend life, and terraform worlds. The old miracles - omniscience, omnipresence, even...

An urgent call-to-action outlining how we can prevent a global conflict in the near-future from Tobias Ellwood, former Defence Minister and Chair of the House of Commons Defence Committee. 'Crucial reading on why our global order has come apart at the seams' - WILLIAM HAGUE 'Thoughtful...

In his million-copy bestseller Guns, Germs, and Steel, Jared Diamond examined how and why Western civilizations developed the technologies and immunities that allowed them to dominate much of the world. Now in this brilliant companion volume, Diamond probes the other side of the equation: What...