Our Uncertain Future

Order NEW to get Second Edition (2019) including changes in data and predictions now that five years have passed. Some authors predict that in our future we face elimination by superintelligent machines, others predict destruction due to climate change, yet others predict massive unemployment and economic collapse due to automation. We have been told of advantages and dangers of nanotechnology, genetic engineering, and other technologies. Each author has largely ignored the other points of view. But, there can be only ONE FUTURE. This is a refreshing new look at our next fifty years from a former university professor who holds advanced degrees in electrical engineering, physics and psychology. The findings to date on climate change, automation, economics, history of technology, and future digital and other technological changes have been thoroughly reviewed, and a synthesis offered that includes all these forces in a single future. The result predicts an incredible future in which the precise details of our technological progress cannot be determined in advance, but a future which is predicted to unfold with ever more increasing rates of change. The best way to prepare for this future, a future already well underway, will be to take advantage of the unique opportunities offered by the changes driving our future, the opportunities offered by the very technologies driving us toward our incredible future. The future, fraught with danger, can be surprisingly bright -- if we can make use of the opportunities implicit in the challenges to come.