Comments | cxc: The Next 100 Years

cxc

The Next 100 Years

Jun 08, 2009 00:51

Recently finished reading "The Next 100 Years: A Forecast for the 21st Century" by George Friedman. All y'all should read this. I've provided a brief overview of the various topics discussed, broken down by chapter.

( Book report time! )

Comments 3

dratomic June 8 2009, 06:53:14 UTC

Sounds interesting. I tend to look askance at futurists... I think they're often limited by their own experiences and are unable to forecast the truly revolutionary moments that inevitably erupt within society. For instance, no one -- no one -- predicted the rise of the internet nor the role it'd play on either our social lives or our economy. Simply because it fell so far outside the experiences of the futurists, all of whom were trying to extrapolate events based on the current conditions of the time. (Hell, even the science fiction writers didn't really see that one coming...)

Still, at their best, futurists give us something to think about, a jumping off point for discussion that at least gets the gears turning in people's heads. I might give this one a look...

cxc June 8 2009, 14:06:28 UTC

Also consider that this guy does this stuff as his full-time job.

And he does mention the internet and its impact, too, primarily when he's talking about the energy revolution and the interstate highway system.

dratomic June 8 2009, 16:18:48 UTC

*His* mentioning the internet isn't a big deal -- the internet already exists. It's easy at this point to understand how it'll impact the next few decades. I'm saying that previous futurists never mentioned the internet because they couldn't even conceive of it. Just like this guy might not be mentioning X, when X turns out to revolutionize life as we know it in the next 25 years. My point is just that futurists can only work within the context of their own lives and experiences... and unfortunately for their reputations, most of the amazing stuff comes out of left field ( ... )