Book picks similar to
Art Of Conjecture by Bertrand De Jouvenel
2050
ten-books-for-prospective-futurists
france
future
Capital in the Twenty-First Century
Thomas Piketty - 2013
But satisfactory answers have been hard to find for lack of adequate data and clear guiding theories. In Capital in the Twenty-First Century, Thomas Piketty analyzes a unique collection of data from twenty countries, ranging as far back as the eighteenth century, to uncover key economic and social patterns. His findings will transform debate and set the agenda for the next generation of thought about wealth and inequality.Piketty shows that modern economic growth and the diffusion of knowledge have allowed us to avoid inequalities on the apocalyptic scale predicted by Karl Marx. But we have not modified the deep structures of capital and inequality as much as we thought in the optimistic decades following World War II. The main driver of inequality—the tendency of returns on capital to exceed the rate of economic growth—today threatens to generate extreme inequalities that stir discontent and undermine democratic values. But economic trends are not acts of God. Political action has curbed dangerous inequalities in the past, Piketty says, and may do so again.
Smarter Than You Think: How Technology is Changing Our Minds for the Better
Clive Thompson - 2013
But is it for the better? Amid a chorus of doomsayers, Clive Thompson delivers a resounding "yes." The Internet age has produced a radical new style of human intelligence, worthy of both celebration and analysis. We learn more and retain it longer, write and think with global audiences, and even gain an ESP-like awareness of the world around us. Modern technology is making us smarter, better connected, and often deeper—both as individuals and as a society. In Smarter Than You Think Thompson shows that every technological innovation—from the written word to the printing press to the telegraph—has provoked the very same anxieties that plague us today. We panic that life will never be the same, that our attentions are eroding, that culture is being trivialized. But as in the past, we adapt—learning to use the new and retaining what’s good of the old. Thompson introduces us to a cast of extraordinary characters who augment their minds in inventive ways. There's the seventy-six-year old millionaire who digitally records his every waking moment—giving him instant recall of the events and ideas of his life, even going back decades. There's a group of courageous Chinese students who mounted an online movement that shut down a $1.6 billion toxic copper plant. There are experts and there are amateurs, including a global set of gamers who took a puzzle that had baffled HIV scientists for a decade—and solved it collaboratively in only one month. Smarter Than You Think isn't just about pioneers. It's about everyday users of technology and how our digital tools—from Google to Twitter to Facebook and smartphones—are giving us new ways to learn, talk, and share our ideas. Thompson harnesses the latest discoveries in social science to explore how digital technology taps into our long-standing habits of mind—pushing them in powerful new directions. Our thinking will continue to evolve as newer tools enter our lives. Smarter Than You Think embraces and extols this transformation, presenting an exciting vision of the present and the future.
Extracts From: The Second Sex
Simone de Beauvoir - 2015
Never before had the case for female liberty been so forcefully and successfully argued. De Beauvoir’s belief that ‘One is not born, but rather becomes, a woman’ switched on light bulbs in the heads of a generation of women and began a fight for greater equality and economic independence. These pages contain the key passages of the book that changed perceptions of women forever.
More or Less: Choosing a Lifestyle of Excessive Generosity
Jeff Shinabarger - 2013
As Shinabarger reminds them, defining “enough” is more than a responsibility—it is an opportunity to give hope.
Living by your own Rules
Devdutt Pattanaik - 2016
His profound management sutras are derived from his bestselling books on business and management. They show how individuals can realize their potential, create wealth and achieve lasting success by following uniquely Indian principles (based on Hindu, Jain and Buddhist mythology) of goal setting, strategic thinking and decision-making.
Romantic Heroes: Seven full-length Historical Romance Novels
Kathryn Le Veque - 2017
From knights in shining armor to the sexy men of the Old West, lose yourself in these beautifully-crafted tales of romance. Swoonworthy heroes and fiery heroines will touch your heart and leave a lasting impression. This set includes: Queen of Lost Stars by Kathryn Le Veque - Can a woman who has lost everything find love in a lonely knight? Hold Me, Thrill Me, Kiss Me by Barbara Devlin - Pinning his hopes on a kiss beneath the kissing bough, Lord Nicholas Sheldon enlists the aid of his onetime enemies, journeys to Portsea Island, and risks everything for a chance at happiness. The Queen's Man by Terri Brisbin - When a woman falls back in time to Elizabethan England, an adventure of a lifetime awaits. Westbound Awakening by Hildie McQueen - A journey of hope and redemption as Captain John McClain and Mae Hawkins find themselves traveling west to a new life and new adventure. A Knight's Quest by Lana Williams - A lady bound by duty. A knight veiled in secrecy. Can love save them both? A Knight's Reward by Catherine Kean - Lord Dominic de Terre risks all to save the woman he loved and lost, but will he win a knight’s greatest reward? Word of Honor by Alexa Aston - Can Geoffrey de Montfort and his wife, Merryn, recapture the love they once shared despite having spent years apart? This is a limited edition collection.
Modernization, Cultural Change, and Democracy: The Human Development Sequence
Ronald Inglehart - 2004
These changes are roughly predictable because they can be interpreted on the basis of a revised version of modernization theory presented here. Drawing on a massive body of evidence from societies containing 85% of the world's population, the authors demonstrate that modernization is a process of human development, in which economic development triggers cultural changes that make individual autonomy, gender equality, and democracy increasingly likely.
The Family Man
Amy Cross - 2014
Happily married, with a loving wife and a teen daughter, he seems to have everything. But this particular family man has a dark secret that he's managed to hide from his family. From all his families.But that's about to change.When a dying girl crawls to the door of a remote farmhouse, the police are led to a horrific warehouse where scores of other girls are chained in horrifying conditions. Somebody has been farming human beings, using them to create new identities that can be sold on the black market.And now the perfect family man is about to learn that he can never truly escape his past. Originally published as The House of Broken Backs, The Family Man is a dark tale of one man's determination to hide his true nature.
Free: The Future of a Radical Price
Chris Anderson - 2009
Reveals how to run an online business profitably in spite of the Internet's inherently free culture, disseminating the principles of a ''priceless economy'' in six categories that pertain to advertising, labor exchange, and advanced-version fees.
The Post-American World
Fareed Zakaria - 2008
Following on the success of his best-selling The Future of Freedom, Zakaria describes with equal prescience a world in which the United States will no longer dominate the global economy, orchestrate geopolitics, or overwhelm cultures. He sees the "rise of the rest"—the growth of countries like China, India, Brazil, Russia, and many others—as the great story of our time, and one that will reshape the world. The tallest buildings, biggest dams, largest-selling movies, and most advanced cell phones are all being built outside the United States. This economic growth is producing political confidence, national pride, and potentially international problems. How should the United States understand and thrive in this rapidly changing international climate? What does it mean to live in a truly global era? Zakaria answers these questions with his customary lucidity, insight, and imagination.
The Future of Almost Everything: The global changes that will affect every business and all our lives
Patrick Dixon - 2015
In short, with great perception and insight, Patrick Dixon highlights the risks that a future-proof business needs to be aware of, and what to prepare for if it is to prosper and survive in a world where customers and markets, politics and demographics, technology and skills, and opportunities and choices will be very different.
Mind Change: How Digital Technologies Are Leaving Their Mark on Our Brains
Susan A. Greenfield - 2014
Our brave new technologies offer incredible opportunities for work and play. But at what price? Now renowned neuroscientist Susan Greenfield—known in the United Kingdom for challenging entrenched conventional views—brings together a range of scientific studies, news events, and cultural criticism to create an incisive snapshot of “the global now.” Disputing the assumption that our technologies are harmless tools, Greenfield explores whether incessant exposure to social media sites, search engines, and videogames is capable of rewiring our brains, and whether the minds of people born before and after the advent of the Internet differ. Stressing the impact on Digital Natives—those who’ve never known a world without the Internet—Greenfield exposes how neuronal networking may be affected by unprecedented bombardments of audiovisual stimuli, how gaming can shape a chemical landscape in the brain similar to that in gambling addicts, how surfing the Net risks placing a premium on information rather than on deep knowledge and understanding, and how excessive use of social networking sites limits the maturation of empathy and identity. But Mind Change also delves into the potential benefits of our digital lifestyle. Sifting through the cocktail of not only threat but opportunity these technologies afford, Greenfield explores how gaming enhances vision and motor control, how touch tablets aid students with developmental disabilities, and how political “clicktivism” foments positive change. In a world where adults spend ten hours a day online, and where tablets are the common means by which children learn and play, Mind Change reveals as never before the complex physiological, social, and cultural ramifications of living in the digital age. A book that will be to the Internet what An Inconvenient Truth was to global warming, Mind Change is provocative, alarming, and a call to action to ensure a future in which technology fosters—not frustrates—deep thinking, creativity, and true fulfillment.
Burning the Page: The eBook Revolution and the Future of Reading
Jason Merkoski - 2013
For many readers today, books are beloved objects, and ebooks signal a momentous change. What will happen to long-familiar friends from the world of print—bookshelves, author autographs, inscriptions, book covers, and even bookworms? Are they going to die out, or transform into something new? Are digital books the death knell for printed books, or will they, in fact, breathe new life into them? Will ebooks offer features that enhance the reading experience, or distract you from it? Will books evolve to the point where readers can physically become part of the story one day?A captivating chronicle, Burning the Page explores the ebook revolution's striking impact on the very ways in which we create, discover, and share ideas. Once you see how ebooks came to be, you can look ahead into the future of reading, communication, and human culture—and how digital content will shape our digital lives.
The Last Builder
Simeon Graves - 2017
We've spread to other galaxies and continue to thrive as a vast civilization. But calamity looms on the horizon. Little do our people know that a long-gestating killer, called The Keresian Virus, will soon decimate 99.99% of our population.
One of the few people aware of the government cover-up is Cutler Copeland. Not only is he immune to the virus, he's also a scout who's spent his life finding inhospitable planets with just the right attributes to facilitate terraforming into living ecosystems. But now, with his ex-wife dead, Cutler must return to Earth to fetch his teenage daughter, Kit, and somehow remain undetected by the government conspirators hellbent on stealing the secrets that will soon come into Cutler's possession.Will he succeed in reconnecting with his daughter, and get away just before the slaughter, or will his enemies track him down and use him for their own nefarious plans?P.S. Visit SimeonGraves.com to get a free copy of the never-to-be-published prequel to The Last Builder.
Mated To A Vampire Princess Book 1
LeeSha McCoy - 2021
She can only eat fruits, he hunts for his food. Her venom could bring him to his knees, and a single drop of his bane could kill her.There's no way this will work.Or can it? Amarey James is the first son of alphas Abriya and Clarence. He's just changed for the first time, but he's not interested in finding his mate.Or at least he wasn't until the visions of her began. The scent of the blurry woman in his dreams becomes so disruptive to his daily life, he has no choice but to ask his sister Ariella what's going on.But what she tells him will blow his entire world apart. Princess Karrisee is the first daughter of Queen Vallessa and King Scarva Caro, rulers of the entire kratius. She's desperate for love but can't ever seem to find it, no matter what she tries.So, with a little advice from the Queens in her life, she decides to work on herself for a while, but she soon becomes distracted when her dreams are plagued with her deepest darkest fantasies. She's always been curious of the beasts in the world, but afraid of becoming a traitor to her own kind, it's a secret she's kept fiercely guarded.But when faced with the opportunity to meet one in the flesh, she jumps at the chance, and so begins the wildest journey she ever could've imagined.Note to reader: This is not a standalone series. If you would like to read this story, you are advised to check the reading order at the beginning of the book or begin with the James Pack Wolves series.