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The Futures Canada Library

These are the books that are currently held in the Futures Canada Library. Some will have breakdowns and highlights available so you can get a good overview of the resource for the sake of expediency. However if a book addresses topics of interest to you, you can be sure that a lot more information is available and it is recommended that you take the time to read the book in full.

 

Overviews and book-notes will become more available in time, the Futures Canada library is new and reviews will be produced as soon as possible. 

 

(Bova, Dr. Ben) Faint Echoes, Distant Stars: The Science and Politics of Finding Life Beyond Earth   

 

(Cornish, Edward) Futuring: The Exploration of the Future

 

(Garreau, Joel) Radical Evolution 

 

(Glenn, Jerome C.  and Gordon, Theodore J.) 2006: State of the Future

 

(Harman, Willis W. ) An Incomplete Guide to the Future 

 

(Hiemstra, Glen)Turning the Future into Revenue 

 

(Homer-Dixon, Thomas) The Upside of Down

 

(Lombardo, Thomas  Ph.D) Contemporary Futurist Thought 

 

(Marx, Gary) Future Focused Leadership: Preparing Schools, Students, and Communities for Tomorrow's Realities 

 

(Slaughter, Richard A. with Bussey, Marcus) Revolutionary Wealth 

 

(Stock, Gregory) Redesigning Humans 

 

(Toffler, Alvin) Future Shock

The book-notes are available! Click here.

 

(Toffler, Alvin and Heidi) Futures Thinking for Social Foresight 

 

(Weiner, Edie and Brown, Arnold) Future Think: How to Think Clearly in a Time of Change 

 

(World Future Society) Creating Global Strategies for Humanity's Future 

 

Movies

Great Warming

The launch of a major statement calling for immediate action on climate change has brought together a diverse coalition of voices from every spectrum of thought, all of whom believe that environmental stewardship and creation care must become a top policy priority.

The statement, which is being issued in advance of the November 3 release of the new climate change film The Great Warming, is one part of a major initiative by the coalition and the film’s producer Stonehaven Productions to engage Americans in proactive action and advocacy. The coalition is urging all Americans to see the movie and thus let elected officials at all levels know that global warming is an urgent priority.

 

The Great Warming Call to Action statement -- signed by high-profile religious leaders from across the faith and ideological spectrum, key policy-makers, celebrities, environmental groups, and many of the most respected scientists in the world -- calls on our country to take immediate action to address climate change.

 

Regal Cinemas, which does not generally release independent documentary films, committed to a national release of The Great Warming following months of calls from people who viewed the documentary in their communities and churches and became convinced that the movie must reach a broad audience in order to galvanize action on climate change.

 

http://www.thegreatwarming.com/ 

 

An Inconvenient Truth

Humanity is sitting on a ticking time bomb. If the vast majority of the world's scientists are right, we have just ten years to avert a major catastrophe that could send our entire planet into a tail-spin of epic destruction involving extreme weather, floods, droughts, epidemics and killer heat waves beyond anything we have ever experienced.

If that sounds like a recipe for serious gloom and doom -- think again. From director Davis Guggenheim comes the Sundance Film Festival hit, AN INCONVENIENT TRUTH, which offers a passionate and inspirational look at one man's fervent crusade to halt global warming's deadly progress in its tracks by exposing the myths and misconceptions that surround it. That man is former Vice President Al Gore, who, in the wake of defeat in the 2000 election, re-set the course of his life to focus on a last-ditch, all-out effort to help save the planet from irrevocable change. In this eye-opening and poignant portrait of Gore and his "traveling global warming show," Gore also proves himself to be one of the most misunderstood characters in modern American public life. Here he is seen as never before in the media - funny, engaging, open and downright on fire about getting the surprisingly stirring truth about what he calls our "planetary emergency" out to ordinary citizens before it's too late.

 

For more information see www.climatecrisis.net 

 

Powerpoint Presentations

(Kurzweil, Ray) WFS Conference Presentation

Kurzweil's brilliant and thought provoking presentation from the WFS conference in Toronto. Even without his explanations of the slides, it is a valuable resource and should be a priority to learn.

Download here

 

(Wacker, Jeff) Sizing Up the Next Big Thing in Information Technology

A well illustrated presentation about what we can look forward to in terms of the IT trend.

Download  here (PDF file)

 

 

 

Further Resources

 

Here are some other links to interesting reads.

 

www.climatecrisis.net 

The website for Al Gore's "Inconvenient Truth," it provides information on the environmental crisis our world faces, and how each person can help. 

 

Radical Evolution : The Promise and Peril of Enhancing Our Minds, Our Bodies -- and What It Means to Be Human (Joel Garreau)

 

From Publishers Weekly
Washington Post reporter Garreau takes readers on a cross-country trip into the future as he interviews scientists and other thinkers grappling with the implications of our newfound—and, to some, frightening—knowledge of the genome. Highlighting what he calls "the Curve"—the rate of exponential change in technology—Garreau (Edge City: Life on the New Frontier) breaks the central part of his book into four scenarios. In "Heaven," genetic engineering will make us stronger and healthier, help us live longer and metabolize our food more efficiently. "Hell" resembles the island of Dr. Moreau: science runs amok, we cripple the genome of our food supplies, and babies are born with unexpected deformities instead of the improved characteristics promised by gene therapies. The "Prevail" scenario might also be called Muddling Through: even if we make a mistake now and then, we will figure out how to slow potentially harmful changes and speed up potentially beneficial ones. Last, "Transcend" considers that humans might conquer the difficulties that lie ahead and emerge into a new age beyond our wildest dreams. Science buffs fascinated by the leading edges of societal and technological change and readers concerned by the ethical issues that change presents will find much to ponder in Garreau's nonjudgmental look into our possible futures Agent, John Brockman.(On sale May 17)

 

THE 2010 MELTDOWN: Solving the Impending Jobs Crisis (Praeger, Publication September 30, 2005). 

Workforce trend analyst Edward E. Gordon casts a critical look at the state of U.S. education as we prepare for a vastly different world of work. 

 

FUTURING: The Exploration of the Future

This book comes highly recommended. Click here for the full review.

 

KUDOS FOR FUTURING 
The biggest blunders of the twenty-first century so far have been failures of planning, says Mark Satin, author of Radical Middle <http://www.wfs.org/revsatinjf05.htm>. The antidote is futuring, Satin suggests in his recent review of FUTURING: The Exploration of the Future by Edward Cornish. The book, he writes, "may be the most significant hands-on political book since David Osborne and Ted Gaebler's Reinventing Government (1992). If we want to figure out how to successfully assess and steer the phenomenally complex high-tech world we've created, no book may be better worth our while." Satin's review appears in the October 15 issue of his Radical middle newsletter, http://www.radicalmiddle.com/x_cornish.htm ORDER the book: http://www.wfs.org/futuring.htm

 

INFONATION: http://cyberschoolbus.un.org/infonation3/basic.asp

Did you know that Zimbabwe spends more proportionally on education than does Finland? Or that Hungarians have more cars than Bolivians? Compare country statistics side-by-side with the UN's Cyberschoolbus Web site tool, Infonation. Search for statistics on health, education, economics, technology, and more to find out how the nations of the world compare. The Cyberschoolbus site also offers curricula on hunger, poverty, cities, women's rights, indigenous peoples, space, oceans, peace, and saving tomorrow's world.

 

NOW AND NEXT'S TOP TRENDS

Click on any of a dozen categories to see the Top 10 Trends at futurist Richard Watson's Now and Next site.

http://www.nowandnext.com/?action=top_trend/list_sectors

 

THE SINGULARITY IS NEAR: When Humans Transcend Biology (Viking,2005). 

Renowned inventor and techno-optimist Ray Kurzweil shows how the predicted singularity--where technological change accelerates to mind-boggling levels--will profoundly alter our bodies, minds, and future realities. Order: http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0670033847/thefuturistbooks

 

 

  • Futures Survey: http://www.wfs.org/fsurv.htm - monthly guide to the literature of social change, new technologies, futures studies, policy-making, environmental studies, organizational renewal, and related cross-disciplinary fields.
  • OECD Forum for the Futures: http://www.oecd.org/sge/au/ - is committed to an interdisciplinary approach and a systemic perspective as the most appropriate way of effectively tackling longer-term future challenges in a world of increasing interdependence and accelerating change
  • Institute for Alternative Futures: http://www.altfutures.com - AF helps organizations and communities clearly understand the accelerating pace of change and focus their energies on clarifying their highest aspirations.
  • Institute of Future Studies for Development, IFD http://www.ifd.or.th - is an independent academic research institute created for the purpose of communicating
  • FUTURE:  http://users.erols.com/jonwill/future.htm  This web page consists of a listing of Internet information sources about the Future: organizations, web sites, great Thinkers and Visionaries, life extension, nanotechnology industries, robotics, science fiction, space exploration
  • Future Oriented Complexity and Adaptation Studies (FOCAS) at the Network University of the Green World. : http://muratopia.org/
  • Global futures foundation: http://www.globalff.org/ - Global Futures works with major corporations, governments, and advocacy groups to resolve conflict and create opportunity
  • Global Ideas Bank, The: http://www.globalideasbank.org/ - An International Suggestion Box for socially innovative non-technological ideas and projects, with £1,000 UK sterling awards annually for the best ideas or projects submitted
  • Institute for Advanced Interdisciplinary Research: http://www.systems.org/HTML/welcome.htm The Institute strives to deliver to its clients strategic advantage in the global inter-linked economy monitoring at the state of the art in computer and communications technologies.
  • On the Horizon: http://sunsite.unc.edu/horizon  - informs educational leaders of the implications of change in the external world and provides recommendations for action to address these implications.
  • Principia Cybernetica Project: http://pespmc1.vub.ac.be/ - computer-supported collaborative development of an evolutionary-systemic philosophy.
  • Rocky Mountain Institute: http://www.rmi.org/ - o foster the efficient and sustainable use of resources as a path to global security.
  • Santa Fe Institute: http://www.santafe.edu/ - draws scientists from universities and research institutions throughout the world to pursue broad research problems. Much of the work focuses on the science of complexity
  • Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI): http://www.seti-inst.edu/ - The SETI Institute serves as the home for scientific research in the general field of Life in the Universe
  • Strategic Futures International: http://www.sfutures.com/web-lnk1.htm  - Finding who is doing what, and where, in forecasting, futures research, strategic management (Including Models and methods)
  • Context Institute in Seattle : http://www.context.org - research organization, has been exploring and clarifying just what is involved in a humane sustainable culture - and how we can get there.
  • Worldwatch Institute: http://www.worldwatch.org/ - inform policymakers and the public about emerging global problems and trends and the complex links between the world economy and its environmental support systems.

 

 

 

One goal of this site is to compile as much information on futures studies as possible; a virtual futurist's encyclopedia. If you can't find what you're looking for on this site, hopefully some of these supplementary resources  will peak your academic interest. 

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