Next: A Brief History of the Future

by Avi Jorisch

In the coming decades, planet Earth will undergo the unimaginable equivalent of twenty thousand years of progress. Next demonstrates brilliantly how we are in a position to fundamentally shape our destiny by leveraging exponential technologies to achieve our most sublime hopes.
Meir Brand
CEO, Google Middle East

Next brilliantly illuminates the inventors and accelerating convergence of innovative technologies reshaping almost every aspect of our lives, and their implications and potential to cure the sick, feed the hungry, eradicate poverty, and heal the planet.
Daniel Kraft
MD, Chair for Medicine and Neuroscience, Singularity University; founder and Chair, Exponential Medicine

The fascinating stories featured in Next show what the future of humanity on Earth – and maybe even other planets – might look like in the near future. The book will also give readers tremendous hope for their lives and for our future as a species.
Toomas Hendrik Ilves
former President of Estonia

Next is a must-read book featuring game-changing innovations that are having an outsized impact on human history and are poised to transform our species from a society of takers to a society of givers.
Martin Eberhard
co-founder and former CEO, Tesla Motors

The future is already here. Next shows that perhaps for the first time in history, humanity can now exert nearly complete control of what happens to our species and our planet.
Tshaka Cunningham
CSO, Polaris Genomics; Executive Director, Faith Based Genetics Research Institute

People forget that the only real border that matters is the thin blue line of our atmosphere. The riveting stories in Next show readers what the future of humanity, protected by that thin blue line, might look like – coming very soon.
Nicole Stott
retired NASA astronaut; artist; author

Kindle Edition

Published September 4, 2022

Reviews

[Dr. Harold · Rating 5 out of 5]

Dr. Harold Goldmeier manages an investment company and writes for financial companies about business, social, and political issues. He is a free public speaker for community groups and consults on matters of commerce and industry. He can be reached a harold.goldmeier@gmail.com


Israel appears haunted by a sense of despair. The nation is locked in domestic and international political battles exacerbated by tensions between the ultra-religious and open-society proponents. As Rabbi Jonathan Sachs put it, “We live in an era of intense social discord and distrust… cancellation or ostracism.” The Rabbi asks the quintessential question, “How do we heal our fractured world?”

First, learn to think differently. Business schools and executive development programs incorporate psychology courses to stimulate contagious positive energy. Harvard University had us examine challenges with a positive mental attitude to welcome the fast pace of change.

Israel’s business and military complexes focus on the positive, on the miracles in our midst. Author and social anthropologist Avi Jorisch discerns from his studies that Jewish prophetic tradition creates a remarkable culture of innovation. Its sobriquet as The Start-Up Nation is called an economic miracle by those who coined the term. Solving the world’s most formidable problems by innovating “on agriculture, medicine, water, and defense…making life better for billions of people around the world.”

Second, ignore the bearer of bad news. Sages consider that person a fool. Negativity feeds into the stewpot of emotions fomenting hate and vengeance. The third change you can make if you want to have hope for our children and the future of the Earth is to read works by Avi Jorisch. His writing is smart, factual, refreshing, and uplifting.

Jorisch studies current trends and accomplishments. He talks of solutions being explored now how “human beings can exert (and are exerting) significant control over what happens to our species and our planet, and that our future is better than most of us think.”

His new book, NEXT: A Brief History of the Future, reports on “thirteen game-changing innovations that are poised to transform our species from a society of takers to a society of givers.” Innovators are finding solutions to hunger, pollution, and global warming by mobilizing our remarkable abundance and wealth, greater and more democratic, in this writer’s opinion,
at any other time in human history.

For context, first read about the storied life of Hans Rosling in Factfulness: Ten Reasons We're Wrong About the World – and Why Things Are Better Than You Think. Rosling explains how our worldview has been distorted. He identifies ten human instincts that cause erroneous thinking. Rosling and Jorisch make the case that we can learn to separate fact from fiction when forming our opinions.

The vast majority of people around the world are living middle-class life. Jorisch’s March 2023 Jerusalem Post article contains ten graphs and charts demonstrating human progress in living standards, health status, social services, and technology. According to Rosling, it means our lives improve regularly from generation to generation:
• They are not impoverished and suffering.
• Their boys and girls go to school.
• Their children get vaccinated.
• They live in two-child families, and
• They want to go abroad on holiday, not as refugees.
• Step-by-step, year-by-year, the world is improving.

We might add that opportunities for success are greater for people of most races, religions, genders, and childhood class stations in life. In Next, Jorisch does a cursory review of the writings of futurists. He focuses on the moon-shot landing as the “greatest mobilization of resources and manpower in human history,” which ought to be a lesson for us. We need “moon shot thinking” to overcome our current challenges.

I sent off a note to my cyber-infatuated grandson about investigating Singularity University Jorisch discusses at length. What this writer finds remarkable about the case reports Jorisch describes is the innovators are all self-made people; they are unique and outstanding only in that they recognize a problem a spend their waking moments—and in their dreams—finding solutions.

There is the space program yielding untold advances for human existence. Russia and America launched the space race and now multitudes of countries and private companies are engaged. “Today, there are more than 50.1 billion devices online worldwide, used by half of the world’s population… The new space economy is the catalyst that will fundamentally transform life on Earth.”

Other case reports cover The Internet Academy and new means of learning, improving shelter, water resources, and health through advances in blood and genetic editing. Prosperity is in the offing for food security, electricity engineering, and more.

One more thought about the author. Jorisch brings a spirit and sense of spirituality to his work. I described his fifth book, Thou Shalt Innovate, as a “bouquet of life enhancing and life-saving innovations flowing from Israel.” Many already knew the stories of the start-up nation. “But Jorisch finds spiritual meaning or ‘higher purpose,’ as a secular man prefers, in them.” Jorisch finds an eternal message in the innovations that benefit humankind. No story is more impactful and inspiring than the 24 pages about the man who empowers girls and women through sanitary blood maintenance. He is changing the life and spirit of a generation.

Jorisch is a Senior Fellow at the American Foreign Policy Council and a prolific lecturer and writer whose books and articles have appeared in a plethora of languages. Everything he writes is documented and presented with extraordinary clarity and simplicity. NEXT flows easily because the stories are about the people he features “working to make the world a better place …and dreaming big enough” to make it happen.” NEXT includes 34 pages of endnotes to each chapter and a 37-page Bibliography.

I tell the story in my review of Rosling’s book about one of my children. He is a graduate of a prestigious university who told me, “My head can’t handle all the facts and commentaries from pundits, and they don’t seem to care when their facts are wrong. It’s all mind-numbing and paralytic.” I gave him Thou Shalt Innovate to read. Now I will encourage him and others to buy NEXT: A Brief History of the Future.

[Robert · Rating 3 out of 5]

“Nếu tiếp tục đào cái chết từ mặt đất lên, chúng ta sẽ nhận cái chết từ bầu trời xuống”
Van jones.

Đây là cuốn sách vừa được xuất bản phiên bản Việt ngữ nhằm Kỷ niệm 30 năm quan hệ song phương Việt Nam – Israel nhưng những phát kiến được đề cập trong quyển sách này không chỉ ở Israel mà là trên khắp thế giới, từ các nước phát triển cho đến tận cùng những nơi đã từng nghèo khó của các nước thuộc thế giới thứ ba. Tựa sách là 13 phát kiến nhưng Khoa nhận ra đến 14 phát kiến hay ho trong cuốn sách này.

Không phải tất cả 13 phát minh được đề cập trong cuốn sách đều khiến cho Khoa ấn tượng, Khoa thấy thích thú với một số trong đó như: ứng dụng của United Hatzalah như Uber người cần cấp cứu với kỹ thuật viên cấp cứu gần nhất; hệ thống điều phối điện mặt trời và hệ thống nước từ xa cũng như phần mềm Takadu của Israel mà vừa qua Khoa cũng vừa review cuốn Con đường thoát hạn có đề cập đến; và một trong hai dự án ấn tượng với Khoa nhất chính là Kế hoạch Công dân điện tử 2.0 của Estonia với mạng trực tuyến X Road số hóa mọi quy trình hành chính và kiểm soát thông tin. Với tôn chỉ dữ liệu thuộc về người dân chứ không phải Chính phủ hay các tập đoàn công nghệ, cách mạng số hóa của Estonia thật sự là một bước tiến rất xa trong việc xóa mờ biên giới vật lý của các quốc gia và mở ra cả những cơ hội to lớn và những thách thức cũng thú vị không kém.

Câu chuyện thú vị nhất đối với Khoa có lẽ có câu chuyện về sự ra đời của băng vệ sinh giá rẻ cho phụ nữ Ấn Độ nói riêng và các quốc gia đang phát triển nói chung. Đó là câu chuyện không mang tính đột phá về mặt công nghệ hiện đại hay mức đầu tư khổng lồ, mà là câu chuyện gian nan của nhà phát minh từ khi hình thành ý tưởng đến việc gia đình tan vỡ, bị cộng đồng xa lánh và trục xuất vì những rào cản về văn hóa truyền thống đến khi thành công và chia sẻ bản quyền miễn phí cho thế giới.

Một trong những điểm cộng của cuốn sách này là tác giả không chỉ đưa ra những lời khen mà cũng nêu rõ những tồn đọng trái chiều của các phát minh này như những rủi ro của Estonia và những sai lầm trong quá khứ của dự án đê điều của Hà Lan. Bên cạnh đó là những tranh cãi về các tác dụng xã hội của các phát minh tương đối nhạy cảm như công nghệ chỉnh sửa gen CRISPR-cas9. Đây là phần tranh cãi Khoa thấy thú vị nhất cuốn sách này. Xóa sổ một loài? Tạo ra loài mới? Siêu nhân hóa loài người? Nên hay không?

Tuy nhiên, Khoa cũng không đồng tình với một số quan điểm về vai trò của thế giới hiện đại như tác giả cho rằng “nhiều phát minh mới sẽ làm giảm bất bình đẳng hay “Trong một thế giới tổng dương thì càng có nhiều người khá giả thì cuộc sống cá nhân bạn càng tốt””, cá nhân Khoa cảm nhận quan điểm này có nhiều tầng ý gây tranh cãi và cần làm rõ thêm. Nhìn chung, qua cuốn sách này bạn đọc có thể có cái nhìn sơ bộ về các phát minh từ quá trình hình hành ý tưởng đến con đường hoàn thiện chúng qua từng thời kỳ. Nếu có thêm thời gian, bạn đọc có thể tìm hiểu thêm về các phát kiến mà các bạn ấn tượng.

[Hal · Rating 4 out of 5]

A rather intriguing set of vignettes on topics of innovations and them ramifications for the near future. The set runs through, space, learning, shelter, environment, hygiene, medicine, disaster resilience, energy, prosperity, food, water, governance, and security.

Each subject covered deals with special people who create and institute measures that will improve the status quo or take a totaling different approach. Not all the topics were that appealing but there were many ideas expressed here that are fascinating. And the amazing things as they will soon become common place to us as we ramp up our technology assisted with the AI the big buzzword out there night.

There are too many ideas to go through in a brief review here but the latter topic on working with self driving cars by Google's X-man I found particularly interesting. The idea presented that in the possibly near future our transportation will be revolutionized by totally self driving vehicles that will be at our call to whisk us anywhere as we kick back and enjoy the ride without the added burned of ownership and upkeep. Not to mention the lives it will save by virtually eliminating human error accidents.

A book with much food for through for the forward thinking and curious out there.

[Carol · Rating 5 out of 5]

An inspiring book about how innovators found creative paths to address problems and create the future! Loved the book!