Future State

One of the most talented and creative authors working today, Neal Stephenson is renowned for his exceptional novels - works colossal in vision and mind-boggling in complexity. Exploring and blending a diversity of topics, including technology, economics, history, science, pop culture, and philosophy, his books are the products of a keen and adventurous intellect. Stephenson ponders a wealth of subjects, from movies and politics to David Foster Wallace and the Midwestern American College Town; and more.

Counter-Operative Clarity is a clear and direct manual for people who want to stay mentally strong in a world shaped by artificial intelligence and predictive systems. It is not a book about the future. It is about what is already happening in the systems we use every day—search engines, apps, smart tools, and online platforms. These systems are not just helpful tools. They are trained to watch, learn from, and influence how you think, feel, and act. This book is not about improving your productivity or helping you relax. It will not tell you to unplug or slow down. Instead, it shows you ...

Sixty years ago, legendary economist John Kenneth Galbraith issued a grim prophecy that the global elite would harness the potential of the burgeoning computing revolution to accumulate even more wealth and power.

This dynamic collection of Black voices, performed by Tony and Grammy Award-winning actor, rapper, and producer Daveed Diggs and Emmy Award-winning writer, creator, producer, and actor Lena Waithe, works like an incantation of origin, healing, and imagination. Born from a series of conceptual art exhibitions, the perspectives gathered here are nowhere near monochromatic.

A hinge moment in recent American history, 1995 was an exceptional year. Drawing on interviews, oral histories, memoirs, archival collections, and news reports, W. Joseph Campbell presents a vivid, detail-rich portrait of those memorable 12 months.

The free-market, limited-government development model has been an ecological and social disaster for the developing world. Sustainable and equitable development is only possible with the active involvement of a strong central state that can guide the economy, protect the environment, and prioritize meeting their people’s basic needs. In this sure-to-be-controversial audiobook, Chandran Nair shows that the market-dominated model followed by the industrialized West is simply not scalable.

Centuries have passed since the Communist Federation defeated the capitalist Empire, but humanity is still divided. A vast artificial-intelligence network, a psychiatric bureaucracy, and a tiny egalitarian council oversee civil affairs and quash “abnormal” attitudes such as romantic love. Disillusioned civilians renounce the new society and either forego technology to live as “primitives” or enhance their brains with cybernetic implants to become “cybos”.

In the light of historical review, decades from today future generations will need to know that there was dissent against this story of the CoVID-19 pandemic. I am proud to be one of the few voices dissenting against the distortion of science which has characterized the coronavirus infection. Let us allow data-backed, scientific evidence to have its say, unfiltered by self-interested propagandists that are exploiting the public’s incomprehension of scientific matters. You can declare yourself free from this infectious virus panic and hysteria. I'm doing my best to teach as many as who ...

This is the dramatic story of a conservative champion who shaped modern America—by leading a Golden Age of Bipartisanship and passing more legislation than any other Senator in the post-Vietnam era. Senator Orrin Hatch co-wrote the most sweeping civil rights bill since the 1960s, launched a health insurance program for 25,000,000 uninsured children, co-created the generic drug industry, and championed the greatest HIV/AIDS legislation in American history, while sponsoring or co-sponsoring over 750 pieces of legislation.

The 2016 Presidential election will be remembered for ages not only for producing the biggest upset in the history of American politics, but also for the colorfulness of the primaries of both the Democratic and the Republican parties. When Bernie Sanders, the little-known independent senator from small state Vermont boldly stated that he was a Democratic Socialist, and then began his race for the White House as a Democratic Party candidate, hardly anyone took him seriously. After all, he was up against the entire Democratic Party establishment and their favored candidate Hillary Clinton. ...

Around the world, nation-states are in crisis. From the continued fracturing of post-Trump American politics to the rise of neo-fascism in Germany to ethno-religious nationalism in India, governments worldwide appear to be traveling an unprecedented path of destabilization, as the post–World War II political order unravels and all of us feel the consequences.

In "Divided We Stand," James H. Bradshaw delves into a critical examination of what a second term of the 45th President of the United States might mean for the nation's future. Bradshaw argues that the deep divisions already present in American society would likely be exacerbated, exploring potential consequences across the political, social, and economic landscapes. The book analyzes how established democratic norms and institutions could be further challenged. Bradshaw considers the potential shifts in the balance of power, the judiciary, and the administrative state. He examines possible...

April 13, 2006. A Jerusalem Post headline reads: "Jericho man murdered over home sale." The 42 year-old father of eight was kidnapped, shot seven times, thrown into his car, and set on fire, because he had sold his Jerusalem apartment to Jews. Radical Islam has long desired to seize Jerusalem and make it off limits to Christian and Jewish believers. In this revealing book, Dore Gold, former Israeli ambassador to the United Nations, reminds us that the war on terror is also a war on faith.

A Legend of the Future by Agustín de Rojas, the father of Cuban science fiction, takes place inside a spaceship on a mission to Titan, one of Saturn's moons, while back on Earth, warring super powers threaten the fate of humanity. When the ship malfunctions on the return journey, the crewmembers must face their innermost fears amidst experiments in psychological and emotional conditioning and aliens that may or may not be real.

In Beyond Baseball's Color Barrier, Rocco Constantino chronicles the history of generations of ballplayers, showing how African Americans have influenced baseball from the 1800s to the present. He details how the color line was drawn, efforts made to erode it, and the progress toward Jackie Robinson's debut - including a pre-integration survey in which players unanimously promoted integration years before it actually happened.

There are ninety thousand registered dams in the United States, fifty thousand of them classified as “major.” Nearly all of this infrastructure was built during a forty-year period, from 1932 to 1972, in an era of public investment and political consensus that seems inconceivable today. These incredible structures—sometimes called the American Pyramids—helped the country rebound from the Great Depression, brought water and electricity to enormous reaches, helped win World War II for the Allies, and became the basis for decades of prosperous stability.

From one of the most admired reporters covering China today comes a vital new account of the life and political vision of Xi Jinping, the authoritarian leader of the People's Republic whose hard-edged tactics have set the rising superpower on a collision with Western liberal democracies. As a China reporter for the Wall Street Journal, Chun Han Wong has chronicled Xi's hardline strategy for crushing dissent and his political repression in Hong Kong and Xinjiang. Now, Wong has drawn on his years of reporting across China to create a lucid and historically rooted account of China's leader.

"America at the Crossroads: Parallels with the Roman Empire’s Fall" explores the economic, military, political, and social factors that contributed to the collapse of the Roman Empire, drawing comparisons with modern-day America.

Award-winning historian Simon Schama's landmark exploration of how America's past influences its future 'I can tell you exactly when American democracy came back from the dead, because I was there . . .' Simon Schama's different kind of history of the USA begins in the middle of an Iowa caucus. There he witnesses first-hand the exciting, chaotic crush as ordinary Americans - grannies, students, businesswomen and doctors - decide who should become the 44th President of the United States.

As the shockwaves of COVID-19 continue to spread, and as the smoke clears from a year of anger and unrest, many people feel forlorn about the future. In End State, James Plunkett argues that this can be a moment not of despair, but of historic opportunity - a chance to rethink, renew and reform some of the most fundamental ways we organise society. In much the same way as societies emerged stronger from crises in the past - building the state as we know it today - we, too, can build a happier future.