"A riveting imagined history looking back on the twenty-first century through one hundred of its artifacts, from silent messaging systems to artificial worlds on asteroids.
Imagining the history of the twenty-first century through its artifacts, from silent messaging systems to artificial worlds on asteroids.
In the year 2082, a curator looks back at the twenty-first century, offering a history of the era through a series of objects and artifacts. He reminisces about the power of connectivity, which was reinforced by such technologies as silent messaging-wearable computers that relay subvocal communication; recalls the Fourth Great Awakening, when a regimen of pills could make someone virtuous; and notes disapprovingly the use of locked interrogation, which delivers ""enhanced interrogation"" simulations via virtual reality. The unnamed curator quotes from a self-help guide to making friends with ""posthumans,"" describes the establishment of artificial worlds on asteroids, and recounts pro-democracy movements in epistocratic states. In A New History of the Future in 100 Objects, Adrian Hon constructs a possible future by imagining the things it might leave in its wake. Many of these things are just an update or two away- improved ankle monitors, for example, and deliverbots. Others may be the logical conclusions of current trends-""downvote"" networks that identify and erase undesirables, and Glyphish, an emoticon-based language that supersedes the written word. More benign are Braid Collective, which provides financial support for artists, and Rechartered Cities, which invites immigrants to revitalize urban areas hollowed out by changing demographics. With this engaging and ingenious work, Hon leads the way into an imagined future while offering readers a new perspective on the present."
By:
Adrian Hon
Read by:
Anonymous
Imprint: MIT Press
Country of Publication: United States
Dimensions:
Height: 229mm,
Width: 152mm,
Weight: 368g
ISBN: 9780262539371
ISBN 10: 0262539373
Pages: 384
Publication Date: 04 December 2020
Audience:
General/trade
,
ELT Advanced
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Active
Introduction Ankle Surveillance Monitors Speeky The Guide The Braid Collective Silent Messaging Smart Drugs The Twelve Technological Virtues Locked Simulation Interrogation Disaster Kits UCS Deliverbot The Conversation Brokers 46 Central Green Mimic Scripts The Algal Boom Nautilus-1 Glyphish The Value of Work Two Towers The Sudan-Shanghai Connection Embodiment Insurgency in a Box Tropical Race Six Désir Saudi Spring The Halls Amplified Teams Middle Eye Thylacinus cynocephalus The Curve of Babel World of Glass Structured Light Tianxia Negotiation Agents Reading Rooms Pan-Pan-Climate SAGA Five-Niner Heavy Active Clothing The Contrapuntal Hack The Kill Switch Micromort Detector Chinese Tourism Owen's Original Cloned Burger The USTC Crash Rituals for the Secular Muon Detector The Saint of Safekeepers The Imitation Game Miriam Xu's Lace The Loop The Seamstress's New Tools Choosing a Driving Plan Nobel Prize for Medicine Funerary Monuments Basic Maximum Income Alto Firenze A Cure for Hate Shanghai Six New Library of Malmo The Dim Sum Lunches Secret Life of the High Street New Worlds Prince George Multiple Autonomous Element Supervisor Javelin Euphoric Gastronomy The Hunt for the Thylacine Giving Nothing a Name Rechartered Cities The Old Drones, Equal Rights Fourth Great Awakening The Collingwood Meteor The Downvoted Marriage Contracts The Lido Death of a Mouse Systemic Memome Project The Fires of Mahoutokoro The Observavi Database The New Democracies 50% Unemployment The Dream The Cascade OAID Deployment The Brain Bubble How to Watch TV Amanda and Martin The Half-Empty World Enhance, Narada's Box A Letter from Mars Moral Agents The Melt Event How to get Posthuman Friends Rewilding Saï Island Cepheid Variable Neuroethicist Identity Exam Cooling Venus, Biomes Our Unimproved Simulation Trip of a Lifetime
Adrian Hon is CEO and founder of the London-based game design company Six to Start.
Reviews for A New History of the Future in 100 Objects
“Futurists and science fiction die-hards will delight in this impressive feat of imagination.” —Publishers Weekly
