Futurevision: Scenarios for the world in 2040

by Richard Watson, Oliver Freeman

The future is not what it used to be. In this volatile era, with the world changing rapidly, people are more curious than ever to know what lies ahead.

Will relentless consumerism end up destroying our planet? Or can science and technology allow us to innovate our way out of trouble? Perhaps a greater social consciousness and community-based living will take over — or, conversely, the competition for limited resources may result in everyone fighting for themselves.

Drawing on these four possible futures, Richard Watson and Oliver Freeman invite us to examine critically the risks and opportunities to come. They discuss the key factors, trends, critical uncertainties, and wildcards that will shape the future, guiding us to a greater awareness of long-term problems and possible solutions — and empowering us not only to adapt to what might happen, but also to shape our future and to generate change.

It’s impossible to know for certain what the future holds, but we can remove some of its surprises by engaging in a meaningful debate about the choices we face now. This book shows us how.

Genres: Futurism, Nonfiction

330 pages, Paperback

First published October 24, 2012

About the author

Librarian Note: There is more than one author by this name in the Goodreads database.

Richard Watson (born 1961) is an English author, lecturer and futurist known for his 2007 book Future Files: a Brief History of The Next 50 Years and for his infographics, especially his Trends & Technology Timeline 2010-2050 and the Timeline of Emerging Science and Technology 2015-2030.

He has written 5 books about the future and is the founder of What’s Next, a website that documents global trends. He has been a blogger on innovation for Fast Company Magazine and has written about creativity, innovation, and future thinking for a variety of publications including Future Orientation (Copenhagen Institute for Future Studies) and What Matters (McKinsey & Company). He is a proponent of scenario planning and an advocate of preferred futures, believing it is incumbent upon organisations to create compelling visions of the future and work towards their realisation.

In addition to writing, Watson works with the Technology Foresight Practice at Imperial College London and Lectures at London Business School and the King's Fund. He is also a network member of Stratforma and has worked with the Strategic Trends Unit at the UK Ministry of Defence, the RAND Corporation, CSIRO, the Cabinet Office and the Departments of Education in the UK and Australia.

Reviews

[Carlos · Rating 1 out of 5]

I came to this book with George Friedman’s “The Next 100 Years” and “The Next Decade” in mind. For those with the same idea, don’t. These authors have quite a different idea in mind. The focus of the book is really on how they built their future scenarios. Only about a quarter of the book is dedicated to present their scenarios in broad sketches, the rest deals with what to consider and how to attempt to account for as many variables as possible. That approach was much less interesting to me simply because I have no intention of building future scenarios and was actually looking for an interesting and informed speculation of what the future could bring that would hopefully put things in my radar that currently aren’t. I can’t imagine that I wasn’t the only reader with that approach in mind. So I would recommend this book only to those curious as to the nuts and bolts of how to build future scenarios.

[Ellen · Rating 4 out of 5]

An excellent look at what scenarios are, and how to use them.

[Kail · Rating 1 out of 5]

Too much talk around, and rarely gets to the point.

[Scott Morrison · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wanted this to be better than it was.