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Future Files

A Brief History of the Next 50 Years

by Richard Watson

Nicholas Brealey Publishing, 2008

Category: Concepts & Trends

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Future Files
What will life be like in 50 years? Hint: You’ll have a self-driving, flying car, but not in Belgium (bye-bye, Belgium).

In this summary you will learn

  • What major trends will shape the future
  • How life will change in a range of essential areas
  • How these trends will intersect

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Why you should read Future Files

In this bold, entertaining book, futurist Richard Watson reports the results of decades of thought about the future. He identifies more than 200 separate trends, which he helpfully winnows down into five overarching themes illustrated with real-world and hypothetical examples. His breezy style weaves these themes into the major areas of life: work, finances, politics, science, health care and entertainment, among others. Watson’s vision of the future covers all aspects – literally everything from taking baths to artificial intelligence – and the sweep of his ambition is impressive. He augments his text with good graphics, some perhaps tongue-in-cheek (his “Extinction Timeline” has Belgium biting the bullet around 2049). The book’s one weakness is that, while Watson tells readers what will happen in the future, he doesn’t always explain why. This caveat aside, getAbstract recommends this engaging book to leaders, innovators and all those interested in the future.

About the Author

Richard Watson is a futurist for the Future Exploration Network, and author and publisher of the quarterly What’s Next.

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  1. 19. August 2010 Brook Taylor
    Many of Watson's "future trends" seem to have already begun - for example, "buy local" or "eat local" movements are well under way. But some of his predictions, like the advent of robot soldiers and emotional machines, seem quite fresh.
    1. 19. August 2010 Haike Schattka
      Emotional machines already exist as well. Check out this article: http://news.bbc.co.uk/local/threecounties/hi/people_and_places/newsid_8900000/8900417.stm

      Also, they use "social robots" in autism therapy. They are still testing it, but apparently autistic children have been responding really well to it.
    2. 19. August 2010 Brook Taylor
      A fascinating article - thanks. It seems simple enough to design robots that emulate human emotions, but I wish the article described more how these robots actually "develop" them. That's where the true breakthrough in emotional machine technology lies. Human emotions can hardly be a simple algorithm.

      Perhaps this point of "singularity" that Watson and other futurists predict is closer than we think!
  2. 19. August 2010 Ruben Mezas
    Watson remembers me to Orwell's Book 1984. While I do not agree with all his visions, is entertaining to read his thoughts.
    1. 19. August 2010 Koni Gebistorf
      1984!? It's not THAT bad, is it?
  3. 19. August 2010 Koni Gebistorf
    Watson is right in putting the demographic trend (aging world population) first. The effects of this are totally underrated. getAbstract should produce summaries for the elderly, with font size 18!
    1. 25. August 2010 Charles Jacobina
      Get good reader app in itunes

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