Future Theory

In The End of Power, award-winning columnist and former Foreign Policy editor Moisés Naím illuminates the struggle between once-dominant megaplayers and the new micropowers challenging them in every field of human endeavor. Drawing on provocative, original research and a lifetime of experience in global affairs, Naím explains how the end of power is reconfiguring our world.

There has been a lot of ink devoted to discussions of how robots will replace us and take our jobs. But MIT Media Lab researcher and technology policy expert Kate Darling argues just the opposite, and that treating robots with a bit of humanity, more like the way we treat animals, will actually serve us better.

Much has been written about the challenges tech presents to equality and democracy. But we can either criticize big data and automation or steer it to do better. Lobel makes a compelling argument that while we cannot stop technological development, we can direct its course according to our most fundamental values. With provocative insights in every chapter, Lobel masterfully shows that digital technology frequently has a comparative advantage over humans.

Demokratie und Wohlstand, ein längeres Leben, mehr Gleichberechtigung und Bildung: Der Kapitalismus hat viel Positives bewirkt. Zugleich ruiniert er jedoch Klima und Umwelt, sodass die Menschheit nun existenziell gefährdet ist. "Grünes Wachstum" soll die Rettung sein, aber Wirtschaftsexpertin und Bestsellerautorin Ulrike Herrmann hält dagegen: Verständlich und messerscharf erklärt sie in ihrem neuen Hörbuch, warum wir stattdessen "grünes Schrumpfen" brauchen. Die Klimakrise verschärft sich täglich, aber konkret ändert sich fast nichts.

Nurturing Our Humanity offers a new perspective on our personal and social options in today's world, showing how we can build societies that support our great human capacities for consciousness, caring, and creativity. It brings together findings—largely overlooked—from the natural and social sciences debunking the popular idea that we are hard-wired for selfishness, war, rape, and greed. Its groundbreaking new approach reveals connections between disturbing trends like climate change denial and regressions to strongman rule.

Written in an accessible style for all audiences, “How AI Will Shape Our Future” anchors listeners in the history and evolution of Artificial Intelligence, laying the groundwork for a deeper understanding of its trajectory. This equips listeners to engage more thoughtfully with the book’s central theme: What should societies expect from AI in the decades ahead? How does AI actually function? What will its impact be on employment and education, both short-term and long-term? How will AI reshape society, the economy, government, culture, and geopolitics?

In the 16th century, control of colonies and gold bullion gave Spain the edge; 17th-century Netherlands profited from trade and finance; 18th-century France gained from its larger population, while 19th-century British power rested on its primacy in the Industrial Revolution and its navy. In the era of Kennedy and Khrushchev, power resources were measured in terms of nuclear missiles, industrial capacity, and numbers of men under arms and tanks lined up ready to cross the plains of Eastern Europe. But the global information age of the 21st century is quickly rendering these traditional markers of power obsolete, remapping power relationships

Sometimes the events that seem pivotal are just blips, while the more meaningful cultural shifts are hiding in plain sight. Marian Salzman’s job is to uncover those hidden shifts. So what’s in store for the next two decades? In this acutely observed guide, Salzman, whose past predictions have been heralded for coming uncannily close to the way we live now, unpacks the course of human life from the bumpy turn of the millennium through the pandemic era.

In Generative AI: Navigating the Course to the Artificial General Intelligence Future, Martin Musiol delivers an incisive and one-of-a-kind discussion of the current capabilities, future potential, and inner workings of generative artificial intelligence. In the book, you'll explore the short but eventful history of generative artificial intelligence, what it's achieved so far, and how it's likely to evolve in the future. You'll also get a peek at how emerging technologies are converging to create exciting new possibilities in the GenAI space.

In January 2015, Yanis Varoufakis, an economics professor teaching in Austin, Texas, was elected to the Greek parliament with more votes than any other member of parliament. He was appointed finance minister, and, in the whirlwind five months that followed, everything he had warned about was confirmed as the "troika" (the European Central Bank, International Monetary Fund, and European Commission) stonewalled his efforts to resolve Greece's economic crisis.

AI expert Yorick Wilks takes a journey through the history of artificial intelligence up to the present day, examining its origins, controversies, and achievements, as well as looking into just how it works. He also considers the future, assessing whether these technologies could menace our way of life and how we are all likely to benefit from AI applications in the years to come.

With this beginner’s handbook, you’ll learn how to use ChatGPT efficiently and create maximized results. Create natural, human-like conversations, being aware of its limitations and biases, and prepare for the artificial intelligence future.

In AI for Good: Applications in Sustainability, Humanitarian Action, and Health, a team of veteran Microsoft AI researchers delivers an insightful and fascinating discussion of how one of the world's most recognizable software companies is tackling intractable social problems with the power of artificial intelligence (AI). In the book, you'll see real in-the-field examples of researchers using AI with replicable methods and reusable AI code to inspire your own uses.

It’s evident that policing is a problem. But what is the way best forward? In Beyond Policing, distinguished scholar and writer Philip V. McHarris reimagines the world without police to find answers and reveal how we can make police departments obsolete. Beyond Policing tackles thorny issues with evidence, including data and personal stories, to uncover the weight of policing on people and communities and the patterns that prove police reform only leads to more policing.

In this book, I'll break down the complexities of AI into understandable, easy-to-apply concepts that anyone can grasp. Whether you are an entrepreneur, freelancer, student, or a nine-to-five employee, this book can help you adapt and know how to monetize. We provide different business examples, where you can use AI to scale quickly.

Imagine if it was possible to have the perfect sexual relationship without compromise, eat meat without killing animals, have babies without the need to bear them, and choose the time of our painless death. Life would be better, right? All over the globe, people are trying to make this a reality. They want to use technology to solve the thorniest problems of humanity. But what if these ‘problems’ are the very things that make us human?

In Losing the News, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Alex S. Jones offers a probing look at the epochal changes sweeping the media, changes which are eroding the core news that has been the essential food supply of our democracy. Losing the News depicts an unsettling situation in which the American birthright of fact-based, reported news is in danger. But it is also a call to arms to fight to keep the core of news intact.

For thousands of years, customers have been individual humans, families or organizations. But soon, generative AI enabled software and hardware machines will start to act as customers. First they will shop for us, later they will act for themselves. You can’t take them to dinner, and they won’t fall for your slogans, but they might help grow your market – if you know how. Companies are already being called on the phone by software that sounds like a person. Cars will buy their own fuel and tires. That smart speaker in every home can become the housekeeper and shopper for the family it serves.

Judge, jury, and executioner, Judge Dredd is the brutal comic book cop policing the chaotic future urban jungle of Mega-City One, created by John Wagner and Carlos Ezquerra and launching in the pages of 2000 AD in 1977. But what began as a sci-fi action comic quickly evolved into a searing satire on hardline, militarized policing and "law and order" politics, its endless inventiveness and ironic humor acting as a prophetic warning about our world today—and with important lessons for our future.

No longer an uncertain technology of the distant future, artificial intelligence is starting to shape every aspect of our daily lives, from how we think to who we love. In this urgent polemic, leading barrister Susie Alegre explores the ways in which artificial intelligence threatens our fundamental human rights—including the rights to life, liberty and fair trial; the right to private and family life; and the right to free expression—and how we protect those rights.