Showing posts with label future. Show all posts
Showing posts with label future. Show all posts

2030: A Day in the Life of Tomorrow's Kids Review

2030: A Day in the Life of Tomorrow's Kids
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2030: A Day in the Life of Tomorrow's Kids ReviewTechnological advances are made every day, it seems. How will they change our lives over the course of the next 20 years? More specifically: What will it be like to be a kid in the year 2030?
"2030" follows a young boy as he wakes up, goes to school, plays with a friend, and eventually returns to bed. Something new (to us) and innovative shows up at every turn. From owning a dog with a computerized collar that can translate barking into English, to living in an eco-village cluster development and attending virtual batting practice, the text explores a variety of technological advancements that would affect a child. Some inventions or predictions seem far-fetched; others could be very close to implementation. (A GPS in every vehicle is an example of the latter.) Adults who turn these pages may be reminded of gadgets they saw in episodes of the Jetsons, Star Trek, Star Wars, or even the Back to the Future movies. "Clean-a-rella" could be Rosie the Robot's twin sister, quite frankly. After reading this book, young people could be prompted to think and to participate in discussions about what the future might hold for them.
The book may have trouble finding its real audience, though. The text is far too complex for the listed pre-pub target readership, "Ages 6-8." In fact, many members of that group would have trouble sitting still long enough for an adult to read the whole book to them. More likely readers would be the middle graders, represented by the "Ages 9-12" notice that the publisher now lists for the entry. But since the information is presented in picture book format, those kids may assume that the content is for "babies" and pass it by without opening the covers. Some might even think the pictures are too "cartoony." What a dilemma! It will take some effort by a parent, a teacher, or a librarian to offer this book to a youngster who is ready for it.
John Manders' illustrations are bright, colorful, and detailed. Authors Amy Zuckerman and James Daly are obviously familiar with their subject matter. The information presented here is interesting. But the book could have been made more interactive and more kid-friendly. Add a glossary to explain new or complex terms. Post simple discussion questions at the end, or scatter them throughout the volume. Have an accompanying web site that does more than merely advertise the book; one where young people can explore or experiment with even more innovations. As it stands now, there's no follow-up or any kind of prompt for a child to respond to, once the book is finished.
Very few children's books address the topics of technology or future studies. That could be because elementary school students live very much in the present. The future to them may mean summer vacation or Christmas or an upcoming birthday. Wondering what everyday life will be like 20 years from now can be a tremendous intellectual leap for a young person. And once they are able to grasp that concept, they may be disappointed to realize that they will be ADULTS in the year 2030, and therefore probably won't live the young and carefree life of the boy in the book anyway. Yes, unfortunately, this one's a real puzzler.2030: A Day in the Life of Tomorrow's Kids Overview

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High Noon 20 Global Problems, 20 Years to Solve Them Review

High Noon 20 Global Problems, 20 Years to Solve Them
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High Noon 20 Global Problems, 20 Years to Solve Them ReviewEdit of 21 Dec 07 to aadd comment and links.
Comment: This is still the best strategic overview and a book I would recommend all. See the others below.
Having read perhaps 20 of the best books on global issues and environmental sustainability, water scarcity, ocean problems, etc, over the past few years (most reviewed here on Amazon) I was prepared for a superficial summary, political posturing, and unrealistic claims. Not this book--this book is one of the finest, most intelligent, most easily understood programs for action I have ever seen. The book as a whole, and the 20 problem statements specifically, are concise, illustrated, and sensible.
The author breaks the 20 issues into 3 groups. Group one (sharing our planet) includes global warming; biodiversity and ecosystem losses, fisheries depletion, deforestation, water deficits, and maritime safety and pollution. Group two (sharing our humanity) includes massive step-up in the fight against poverty, peacekeeping-conflict prevention-combatting terrorism, education for all, global infectuous diseases, digital divide, and natural disaster prevention and mitigation. Group three (sharing our rule book) includes reinventing taxation for the 21st century, biotechnology rules, global financial architecture, illegal drugs, trade-investment-competition rules, intellectual property rights, e-commerce rules, and international labor and migration rules.
The author's core concept for dealing with these complex issues intelligently, while recognizing that "world government" is not an option, lies with his appreciation of the Internet and how global issues networks could be created that would be a vertical complement to the existing horizontal elements of each national government.
The footnotes and index are professional, but vastly more important, the author's vision is combined with practicality. This is a "doable-do" and this book is therefore my number one reading recommendation for any citizen buying just one book of the 360+ that I have recommended within Amazon. Superb.
See also, with reviews:
The Future of Life
Blessed Unrest: How the Largest Movement in the World Came into Being and Why No One Saw It Coming
Society's Breakthrough!: Releasing Essential Wisdom and Virtue in All the People
Green Chemistry and the Ten Commandments of Sustainability, 2nd ed
Ecological Economics: Principles And Applications
Natural Capitalism: Creating the Next Industrial RevolutionHigh Noon 20 Global Problems, 20 Years to Solve Them Overview

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Hot: Living Through the Next Fifty Years on Earth Review

Hot: Living Through the Next Fifty Years on Earth
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Hot: Living Through the Next Fifty Years on Earth ReviewHertsgaard's book distinguishes "mitigation" (reducing the amount of global warming, mostly by reducing carbon emissions) and "adaptation" (taking measures to deal with the climate change that's going to occur anyhow). The terminology is perhaps confusing (even to some of the reviewers here), since "mitigation" sounds like it refers to the latter. In any event, the book deals mostly with adaptation, since even in the best-case scenario it's now too late to prevent serious climate change effects: only the last chapter is concerned with the criminal neglect that's taken place over the last twenty years, and which seems to be continuing at Cancun now as I write this.
The author has done prodigious research into the topic, and presents it in a readable and convincing way, but perhaps the most important aspect of the book is the account of his travels in person to various areas. He gets a first-hand look at what the threats are, and what's being done (and not being done) in places such as Louisiana and Shanghai (doomed), the Bay Area and New York City (serious troubles ahead), Chicago, London, and the Seattle area (threatened but likely to pull through), and, ironically, the Netherlands, which seems to be in the best shape, thanks to serious planning efforts.
Climate change is taking place faster than expected and it's presenting much more serious problems. I hate to say this, but I feel some relief at the fact that I'm seventy years old with no children.Hot: Living Through the Next Fifty Years on Earth Overview

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Go-Go Girls of the Apocalypse: A Novel Review

Go-Go Girls of the Apocalypse: A Novel
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Go-Go Girls of the Apocalypse: A Novel ReviewWhere to begin on a novel whose title is the barest hint of the wonderful weirdness packed inside? Gischler, best known for his excellent crime capers, here breaks new ground. And I do mean new.
Mortimer Tate has spent the end of the world hiding in a mountain cabin. He hasn't seen anyone for nine years. The first three people he does see, he kills. But really, it wasn't his fault.
Thus begins an adrenaline-soaked, wryly satiric journey through the ashes of America, a world peopled by savages and cannibals and struggling barmen, by rebel armies and mad transvestites, and by the enigmatic Joey Armageddon, whose Sassy A-Go-Go Clubs are the beacon of something a little like civilization. The prose is lean and compelling, and behind all the violence and jokes there's a Vonnegut-esque blend of both love-for and desperation-at all the madness of the world -- Mortimer's and ours.Go-Go Girls of the Apocalypse: A Novel Overview

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The Innovator's Prescription: A Disruptive Solution for Health Care Review

The Innovator's Prescription: A Disruptive Solution for Health Care
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The Innovator's Prescription: A Disruptive Solution for Health Care ReviewIt is a commonplace that the U.S. healthcare system is broken, but the discussion often degenerates into a debate about who is responsible. This book takes a different approach, focusing on what is wrong with the healthcare system and needs to change so it can work better.
The proposed solution is to discard the current fee for healthcare service model, in which healthcare providers are systematically paid to treat illness without recompense for fostering welfare, and create a three-track system:
(1)Fee for service would continue to apply to diagnostic services, where - due to the nature of the patient's condition and the state of medical knowledge - there is a high need for intuitive investigation versus results-based treatment for conditions that are well understood. (The process described brings to mind episodes of House, a TV show in which a brilliant but irascible doctor challenges a team of colleagues to find the problem before the patient dies.)
(2) Fee for result would apply for treating conditions that are well understood and have a clearly defined solution -- colonoscopies, laser eye surgery, implantation of stents, etc.
(3)User networks for patients with chronic conditions/ unhealthy practices to learn how they can help themselves and be motivated to do so.
As is pointed out again and again, disruptive changes will be needed to get from A to B. Thus, hospitals must be redirected to focus on diagnostic services and cede provision of standardized care and wellness coordination to specialized clinics and other agencies. Primary care physicians (the traditional "family doctor") should concentrate on diagnostic services at a lower level rather than acting as "gatekeepers" for referrals to specialists. Enabling changes in reimbursement rules, health insurance arrangements, and medical record keeping are spelled out in detail.
When the dust settles, there will be fewer hospitals (with the survivors focused on enhanced diagnosis, like the Mayo Clinic), fewer medical specialists (who currently operate in narrow niches, often without a full grasp of a patient's situation), more primary care physicians and nurses with augmented responsibilities, a new model for pharmaceutical companies that focuses on targeted medications for precisely defined conditions versus the development and marketing of "blockbuster" drugs that only help a fraction of the users and require enormously expensive mass clinical trials, and a lot of medical work performed by less highly trained personnel with better diagnostic tools.
Andy Kessler presented an analogous vision in "The End of Medicine: How Silicon Valley (and Naked Mice) Will Reboot Your Doctor," Harper Collins (2006). His book is very entertaining, but this one covers the ground in a more disciplined and comprehensive manner. I would recommend "The Innovator's Prescription" for anyone who is seriously concerned about the current healthcare system.
Doctors, hospitals, and other healthcare providers cannot make the needed changes on their own, because they do not control all the levers. Having the government take the lead is said to be problematic, for reasons that are dispassionately stated and I happen to agree with. The authors suggest that the best candidate entities for leading the transition to healthcare in the new mode might be employers that profit from the good health of their employees. Then there is the intriguing possibility of expanding the role of integrated healthcare providers,e.g., Kaiser Permanente.
Let's hope our country chooses the right path.The Innovator's Prescription: A Disruptive Solution for Health Care Overview

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The Lights in the Tunnel: Automation, Accelerating Technology and the Economy of the Future Review

The Lights in the Tunnel: Automation, Accelerating Technology and the Economy of the Future
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The Lights in the Tunnel: Automation, Accelerating Technology and the Economy of the Future ReviewOther reviewers have summarized the book in detail, so I won't. I'll just emphasize the bottom line:
Machines are fast approaching humans in terms of *mental* labor capacity, not just *physical* labor capacity. In the past as machines took over much of our physical labor, we were then free to turn to more valuable mental labor. But once machines take over much of our mental labor, then what do we turn to for employment?
The author makes a very compelling case that this situation will arise, and likely within the next few decades. And he also lays out some rather bold suggestions to delay the shock of the resulting high unemployment and allow us to transition to an inevitably new type of economy as smoothly as possible. Though, even with these suggestions, I expect this transition is not likely to be smooth.
This book is a very important, frank discussion of a pending time-bomb for our precious mass market economy. Read it and recommend it to others. And think about how you and your family and friends will manage the forthcoming transition.The Lights in the Tunnel: Automation, Accelerating Technology and the Economy of the Future Overview

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Divergent Review

Divergent
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Divergent ReviewDivergent was definitely a new riveting tale that had me rapidly flipping the pages in a reading frenzy! It starts off with the reader getting to know the lifestyle of Beatrice, a sixteen year old girl, in a dystopian or controlled world, where there are five factions of people: Abnegation who put others before their own needs and where Beatrice is currently from, the Dauntless who are brave and fearless, the Erudite who are studious, the Amity who are peaceful, and the Candor who are honest. Before Choosing Day, where each sixteen year old will decide which faction they wish to devote their life to, is a simulated aptitude test that will tell Beatrice which faction she would fit in most with...but for her life will never be simple. Instead of having just one of these traits as is normal, Beatrice possesses at least three, which makes her a dangerous person for reasons she doesn't understand, and answers are not forthcoming as she has to keep this information to herself or risk being killed.
From there Beatrice has to make her own mark in the world, and ultimately makes a decision that will change the rest of her life. No more does she portray the meek, silent girl with no spirit, but instead forces herself to rise up to the challenges she faces in both the initiation and in her life. For if she lets her guard down, she faces becoming factionless, without friends or family, but what she doesn't expect to find along her new path is what she yearned for all along. To understand who she really is.
Divergent is one novel that had me jumping out of my seat, biting my nails to the quick as I was drawn into Beatrice's world, cheering her on one minute, and wanting to cry with her the next. She does have her moments where she seems a little cold like when she wishes one boy would stop sniveling, and you see why Abnegation didn't suit her. But then the next minute she is putting herself in danger for someone else, and you understand why she has a bit of a split personality. She's been born into a society that believes you can only have one quality, and she has to figure out on her own that being brave dosen't mean that she has to give up being selfless as well. As she fights to stay in the competition, for only ten initiates will be able to call their new faction familiy, I couldn't help but root for her. Beatrice has a lot to learn, but it's through obstacles and the friendship's she makes that she ultimately finds herself. This is one book that I wholeheartedly recommend to anyone who loves action, bravery, a little romance, and a ton of adventure. Be forewarned that it will have you sitting on the edge of your seat and eagerly anticipating a sequel!Divergent Overview

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Aftershock: Protect Yourself and Profit in the Next Global Financial Meltdown Review

Aftershock: Protect Yourself and Profit in the Next Global Financial Meltdown
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Aftershock: Protect Yourself and Profit in the Next Global Financial Meltdown ReviewIf you would like to visit the author's website, hire them to financially advise you, or simply buy their friend's books, then you'll have plenty of opportunities during this read. Shameless plugs and weblinks are littered throughout so many of these pages you'll probably catch yourself laughing in spite of it all.
And seriously, I have never encountered a more pretentious self-congratulatory pat-themselves-on-the-back-and-then-do-it-again group of authors in my life. Ever. It's tolerable at first, annoying next, unbelievable, and finally comical. Is it entertaining? Oh ok, you'll finally be entertained by their level of arrogance... but probably because you suspect these guys (and gal) don't even realize it.
Their message is simple and never approaches the more erudite levels of their contemporaries. They even complain about their failure at publishing in peer reviewed journals at one point. More sour grapes appear when they devote a huge section of the book (probably about 35%) to attacking practically every economist in the known world. At least they explicitly reveal to the reader exactly where each economist makes their mistake and how they should proceed down the path of redemption. Hell, they even take on the entire SCIENCE of economics at one point.
It's a fun read though and I enjoyed it. It's a serious topic and these guys are probably pretty damn close to predicting what will happen in the next few years despite their sophomoric approach. Go ahead and buy it if you are interested, but in case the Aftershock has already left you penniless, here's the summary:
The U.S. will hit their credit limit when foreign entities quit buying our T-bills. The Fed will continue to buy bonds to manipulate the market, massive inflation will occur, so you better have stocked up on gold because nothing else will protect you.
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Wikiworld (Italian Edition) Review

Wikiworld (Italian Edition)
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Wikiworld (Italian Edition) Reviewcurioso quanto futuristico. Le trovate si susseguono una dopo l'altra in questo mondo in cui reale e virtuale si mescolano indistintamente o quasi. La democrazia via wiki, in cui ogni cittadino è chiamato a votare dal locale al nazionale, su proposte che si susseguono vorticosamente. Un mondo in cui la rete di relazioni è potenziata da un collegamento (neuronale?) a ubik (Internet?), grazie al quale si possono recuperare informazioni sulle altre persone, da database pubblici, in tempo reale.
Le persone e le cose sono dotate di tag che li identificano nel tempo, nello spazio e nelle relazioni. Una rete di microcamere volanti si sposta da un angolo all'altro del pianeta per ricevere e trasmettere informazioni. Un mondo in cui il controllo e la trasparenza a volte richiedono la necessità di oscurarsi e di disconnettersi (sì, è possibile), per godere di un po' di privacy. Un mondo fantastico e visionario, forse neanche troppo lontano dalla realtà che vivremo tra qualche decenno, sperando che almeno i disastri ecologici ipotizzati nell'ebook non si realizzino.Wikiworld (Italian Edition) Overview«Una storia che ti colpisce in modo assoluto' uno dei pezzi di fiction più eccitante che abbia letto negli ultimi anni».[Cory Doctorow]Una novelette di Paul Di Filippo«1.Ecco a voi Russ ReynoldsPiacere, Russ Reynolds. Forse ricorderete il mio nome dai tre giorni in cui fui a capo della nazione. Ci siamo divertiti, quella volta, eh? Chiedo scusa per avere scatenato una guerra commerciale contro parecchi paesi del pianeta. Scommetto che provate tutti un gran sollievo per la mancata escalation allo scontro armato. Io di sicuro. E comunque alla fine gli Uwa l'hanno spuntata, no? Nessun danno, niente dolo. Vi sono grato della vostra comprensione e indulgenza. Giuro che i miei moventi riguardo all'intera faccenda, se pure piuttosto egoistici, non furono ignobili.E adesso che il polverone si è depositato, immagino sarete abbastanza sereni da voler sentire tutta la storia dietro quegli eventi spaventosamente elettrizzanti».+/- 67k characters (10.500 words)

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Wikiworld (one absolute knock-out story) Review

Wikiworld (one absolute knock-out story)
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Wikiworld (one absolute knock-out story) ReviewWikiworld is a gorgeous world where your online community helps you to build your material house as well as your blog, where you can understand who are people in front of you thanks to hi-tech tags and where the trade-war, due to technology, becomes a kind of very-hot-cold-war... So funny!Wikiworld (one absolute knock-out story) Overview"One absolute knock-out story' that is among the most exciting pieces of fiction I've read in years".[Cory Doctorow] "Lighter side of cyberpunk - Great read"Amber HansfordWikiworld is a future with no line between real and virtual worlds, when technologies allow for a global direct democracy and when citizens' personal data are available through eye contact.Wikiworld is a place where online transparency and web sharing can make you a world leader... with all pros and cons. Paul Di Filippo not only pictures a wonderful and futuristic universe, but he also highlights its paradoxes and contradictions:“Russ Reynolds, that's me. You probably remember my name from when I ran the country for three days. Wasn't that a wild time? I'm sorry I started a trade war with several countries around the globe."Science Fiction meets Satire, between utopia and dystopia. Let's run for the presidency of the Wiki States of America!ABOUT THE AUTHOR"Paul Di Filippo (born October 29, 1954 in Providence, Rhode Island) Paul Di Filippo is a science fiction novelist and short story writer of wide genrebending influence, as well as a journalist, a sometimes comics writer, a mail art fiend, and a bunch of other things that are probably very hard to describe.Also, the first person to use the word “Steampunk" in a book title..."[Warren Ellis]

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