The Coming Years

Readings

• SES #: 1 · TOPICS: The recent past and the near future · READINGS: Top 87 Bad Predictions about the Future ↗
  Reading assignment
• Meadows, Donella, Jorgen Randers, and Dennis Meadows. A Synopsis to Limits to Growth: The 30-Year Update . White River Junction, VT: Chelsea Green, 2004. ISBN: 9781931498586. ( PDF ) ↗
  Listed reading
• Senge, Peter. M. Chapter 4 and Appendix 2 in The Fifth Discipline: The Art & Practice of the Learning Organization . New York, NY: Broadway Business, 2006. ISBN: 9780385517256.
  Listed reading
• Strauss, W., and N. Howe. “Cycles in History,” and “A Fourth Turning Prophesy.” Chapters 4 and 10 in The Fourth Turning . New York, NY: Broadway Books, 1997. ISBN: 9780767900461.
  Listed reading
• SES #: 4 · TOPICS: Catastrophic change, power laws, and fractals · READINGS: Buchanan, M. “Causa Prima,” and “A Question of Numbers.” Chapters 1 and 11 in Ubiquity: Why Catastrophes Happen . New York, NY: Three Rivers Press, 2002. ISBN: 9780609809983.
  Reading assignment
• SES #: 5 · TOPICS: Disasters and collapses: nuclear war, global warming, peak oil, bioterrorism · READINGS: Mason, C. “Running out of Fuel: The Coming Energy Crisis,” and “Climate: How Long to Tipping Point.” Chapters 2 and 4 in A Short History of the Future: Surviving the 2030 Spike . Sterling, VA: Earthscan, 2006. ISBN: 9781844073467.
  Reading assignment
• SES #: 6 · TOPICS: The singularity · READINGS: The Law of Accelerating Returns ↗
  Reading assignment
• SES #: 8 · TOPICS: Future politics · READINGS: National Intelligence Council, “The Contradictions of Globalization,” and “Rising Powers: The Changing Geopolitical Landscape.” Chapters 1 and 2 in Mapping the Global Future . Washington, D. C., December 2004. ( PDF - 7.3MB ) ↗
  Reading assignment
• SES #: 9 · TOPICS: Society in motion · READINGS: Toffler, A. “Things: The Throw-Away Societ,” “Places: The New Nomads,” and “People: Away Society.” Chapters 4-6 in Future Shock . New York, NY: Bantam Press, 1984. ISBN: 9780553277371.
  Reading assignment
• SES #: 10 · TOPICS: Science and technology · READINGS: Brockman, John, ed. The Next Fifty Years: Science in the First Half of the Twenty-First Century . New York, NY: Vintage Books, 2002. ISBN: 9780375713422.
  Reading assignment
• SES #: 11 · TOPICS: Economics and demographics · READINGS: Shapiro, R. J. Chapters 2 and 7 in Futurecast: How Superpowers, Populations, and Globalization will Change the Way You Live and Work . New York, NY: St. Martin’s Press, 2008. ISBN: 9780312352424.
  Reading assignment
• SES #: 12 · TOPICS: Describing the future · READINGS: Stephenson, N. Chapters 1-6 in Snow Crash . New York, NY: Bantam Spectra, 2000. ISBN: 9780553380958.
  Reading assignment
• Csikszentmihalyi, M. “Memes vs. Genes: Notes from the Culture Wars.” In Speculations . Edited by John Brockman. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall, 1990. ISBN: 9780138262150.
  Listed reading
• Gladwell, M. “The Three Rules of Epidemics.” Chapter 1 in The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference . Boston, MA: Back Bay Books, 2002. ISBN: 9780316346627.
  Listed reading