This future history of the next thirty years, imagined by bestselling author Thomas Harding, is a compelling and startling call to action. In 2020, a researcher is shocked to find a set of notebooks detailing the history of the next thirty years. Is this a hoax? Or could it be real? The notebooks, written in the year 2050, contain interview transcripts between teenage Billy and Gran Nancy. We learn about the great climate SHOCK, when global temperatures rise much faster than anticipated, resulting in catastrophic consequences for humanity. We learn about a shift away from democracy, toward unelected “ethnarchs” — heads of corporations who use their access to our personal data to competently run the world. We learn about the giant city towers where most people live, work and play inside — where it's safe from natural disasters and viral outbreaks. And between these interviews, we learn more about Billy, whose interest in the history that has been erased from the official record is causing trouble in 2050. Is it too late to change the past to save the future? Key Text Feature glossary

What power rules the world? Two thousand years after the fall of civilization, Vilb continues his epic journey, desperately in search of his humanity in a post-human world. With explorations of both Earth of 2050 and the new world he lives in millenia later, Vilb Solenthay and a memorable cast of characters continue to unravel the mysteries of Little Earth. Keys found in the past could unlock knowledge of the present, and reveal the secrets to future.

What if, instead of trying to predict the future, we could just pick the one we want - and then invent it? Well, we can. Think of the wealth of technological resources already available to us. The computing power in that smartphone in your pocket could have guided 120 million Apollo-era spacecrafts to the moon and back. A gigabyte of memory cost $300,000 in the 1980s - today, it costs a fraction of a penny. Now, try to imagine 2050, when your computing devices will be a million times more powerful or available at one-millionth of today's prices.In this deeply researched and compelling book, the authors do the imagining for you, describing seven so-incredible-as-to-be-almost-magical capabilities that will be available by 2050 in computing, communication, information, genomics, energy, water, and transportation. You may finally get that flying car, have ample water even in a desert, and be treated for disease through microscopic robots in your bloodstream.Drawing on their decades of experience helping major organizations formulate strategies for innovation, the authors demonstrate how to use combinations of those seven capabilities to imagine "perfect" futures, whether that means reversing climate change, resolving today's disinformation crisis, or living 20 years longer. This book paints visions of how the world could - and should - look as we pass the planet on to future generations.We can use those visions to start inventing a perfect future - today.

Discussing the technological supremacy of the chemical industry, including pharmaceuticals, and how it will adopt a leading position to solve some of the largest global challenges humans have even seen, this book details how the industry will address climate change, aging populations, resource scarcity, globality, networks speed, pandemics, and massive growth and demand. Following a detailed introduction to some of the megatrends shaping our world over the forthcoming decades, the book goes on to provide several scenarios of how the world could look by 2050, including 'business as usual' and a 'sustainable' one. Chapter 3 gives a comprehensive overview of the current status, while providing a short historical review of the chemical industry, its origins, achievements and fundamentals. The following chapter reviews the potential impact of each of the selected megatrends on the industry, while Chapter 5 proposes how it could look by 2050. Several features of the chemical industry are presented and discussed, including the industrial relevance from an economical, technological and profitability point of view. The largest chemicals markets in absolute and per capita bases and the areas and countries with largest growth potential for chemicals, pharmaceuticals and feedstock. This chapter also reviews the impact of climate change on the chemical industry from a feedstocks and products point of view and, more specifically, the potential costs in reducing CO2 emissions. A final, concluding chapter summarizes the forthcoming megatrends and potential challenges, opportunities and the outlook for the industry as a whole.

History comes home in a deeply moving, exquisitely illustrated tale of a small house, taken by the Nazis, that harbors a succession of families—and becomes a quiet witness to a tumultuous century. The days went around like a wheel. The sun rose, warming the walls of the house. On the outskirts of Berlin, Germany, a wooden cottage stands on the shore of a lake. Over the course of a hundred years, this little house played host to a kind Jewish doctor and his family, a successful Nazi composer, wartime refugees, and a secret-police informant. During that time, as a world war came and went and the Berlin Wall arose just a stone’s throw from the back door, the house filled up with myriad everyday moments. And when that time was over, and the dwelling was empty and derelict, the great-grandson of the man who built the house felt compelled to bring it back to life and listen to the story it had to tell. Illuminated by Britta Teckentrup’s magnificent illustrations, Thomas Harding’s narration reads like a haunting fairy tale—a lyrical picture-book rendering of the story he first shared in an acclaimed personal history for adult readers.

What will planet Earth be like in twenty years? At mid-century? In the year 2100? Prescient and convincing, this book is a must-read for anyone concerned about the future. Never has the world offered more promise for the future and been more fraught with dangers. Attali anticipates an unraveling of American hegemony as transnational corporations sever the ties linking free enterprise to democracy. World tensions will be primed for horrific warfare for resources and dominance. The ultimate question is: Will we leave our children and grandchildren a world that is not only viable but better, or in this nuclear world bequeath to them a planet that will be a living hell? Either way, he warns, the time to act is now.