A Short History of the Future is book designed to give form to the utopia ideal of every liberal college professor I have ever had. I bought the book on the dollar table at my college almost four years ago on a recommendation of one of my friends. You would think I would know better. Some of the more interesting (ok, maybe not) concepts covered in the book are “Democratic Communism” (yes, the author was attempting to be serious) and “Absolute Relativism.”
The book covers in earnest a 210 year period starting in 1990 or so. The version I read was actually the second edition. The first addition was written, went to press, and was so ridiculously wrong in its predictions that they had to come out with a new addition (who’d a guessed the USSR would loose the cold war.) Basic plot goes like this. Take Marxist revolutionary theory, give it a 200 year time line, remove everything professors always ignore about communism (darn it, why is it that censorship, oppression, and removal of individual liberties always gets in the way of a good communist government.) That’s is the entire book. It lacked originality, vision, and was overall just a bad book.
I am writing this review as nothing more than a warning. It is not the worst collegiate literature I have ever read, but it can definitely claim its place with some of them.
So what does the future hold for us in the next 210 years?
Evidently rampant capitalism, followed by nuclear war. Then a lot of democratically elected communism. Which invariably changes everyones moral concepts. The end result of said moral shift is that when the communist government finally looses its an election the world decides to separate into small groups and form city-states that no longer pursue anything but personal enlightenment.
Actually the best part of the book was the last couple chapters where it started to be science fiction… and pretty interesting scifi at that. Genetically enhanced super humans, self aware robots, messages from distant space, planet colonization, etc.. etc.. etc..
Actually I just started reading “A Tale of Two Cities.” I should have read this book years ago. It reads as much like poetry as liturature.
I just finished reading (actually, listening to the audiobook on my way to work) Stephen Hawking\’s \”The Universe in a Nutshell,\” and the two things Hawking thinks are inevitable is the creation of genetically-enhanced humans and the advances in computer technology to the point where computers can mimic the human brain.
In the next 100 years or so.
Oh and thanks for sparing me what sounds like a pretty unsatisfying read. 🙂