Review by Booklist Review
Foster, a futurist and designer for many top companies, including Google, turns a critical eye to the future in this thought-provoking book. There are four ways of thinking about the future, says Foster: Could, Should, Might, and Don't. "Could" futures are often based on projections from science fiction without any concrete steps to achievement--for example, flying cars. "Should" futures consider goals and try to alter the present to match them--for instance, climate control. "Might" futures rely on data to propose a variety of endgames. Like weather forecasting, this can only give ranges, but it includes ideas like curing cancer. And "Don't" futures offer dire consequences to our actions, painting pictures of plague and destruction. Each has its pros and cons, supporters and detractors. Foster aims at a more moderate view. Changes come in increments, he says, and mankind is amazingly adaptable. COVID-19, for example, sparked innovative ways to communicate, socialize, and survive. Foster urges readers to ask for details, look at interactions, and not freak out about future changes. Society can and will handle them.
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
Starry-eyed visions of glamorous people enjoying miraculous technology misrepresent a future reality that might be glitchier and grungier, according to this intriguing if flawed debut manifesto. Foster, a designer who works with tech companies including Google and Sony, outlines four schools of futurist prognosticating that inform government and corporate planners: "Could Futurists" are boosters for things to come, which are often showcased in "vision videos" of families beaming at their gee-whiz gadgets; "Should Futurists" lay out unduly confident road maps to an improved future based in sketchy quantitative models that are little more than "numeric fictions"; "Might Futurists" evaluate the probabilities of different and potentially clashing future scenarios; and pessimistic "Don't Futurists" look for the complex ways in which the future will go wrong. Foster offers biting and persuasive takedowns of stale futurist tropes as a mix of sci-fi schlock and consumerist porn but stumbles in his pointed refusal to paint a clear portrait of what the future might actually look like (he suggests it will be more of "a quotidian, lived-in evolution of the present" but leans heavily on vague theoreticals: "What happens when we imagine this VR headset in Derek's backpack rather than in the hands of a scientist in a pristine white laboratory?"). This abstract exercise may be of interest to professional designers but will disappoint lay readers. Photos. (Aug.)
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Review by Library Journal Review
While the future is uncertain, most people think about it constantly. In this intriguing new book, futurist Foster asks how the future should be considered. He sees future thinking, futurism, and even employment in futurist industries as positive interests. As a futurist with experience designing products for leading technology companies, Foster defines four ways to approach the future. He offers a range of suggestions, from reading science fiction to empirical studies, narratives, think tank opinion studies, and reports. Foster also identifies a set of attitudes he defines as negative thinking about the future. These negative attitudes, he believes, are especially toxic. The book's final chapter begins with a cautionary note, observing that futurism is not for everyone. However, as people are always looking to the future--sometimes with hope and sometimes with dread--this book should prove to have a large audience. VERDICT Foster's work is highly recommended for readers interested in the world's future.--Jerry Stephens
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Review by Kirkus Book Review
A futurist offers ways to improve the way we think about our decisions. In his debut book, designer and writer Foster asks you to imagine the future. Whatever comes to mind, whether robots, glimmering gadgets, a sprouting civilization on another planet, or a grim wasteland where crops die and battles rage, may depend on what kinds of movies, books, ads, and media you've consumed. As a top designer at Google, Nokia, and Sony, Foster spent his career imagining next-generation spaces and products and offers up a framework for thinking about the present and future. "Our generation is experiencing technological and societal change at a rate and magnitude not felt by our ancestors, and the effects of this change can be bewildering," Foster writes. But what if we considered the future more as an extension of today? With thoughtful descriptions of four mindsets, hence the book's title, Foster blends history with current events to probe different ways humans tackle big issues, and the pitfalls and the positives of each. So-called "could" futurists, he writes, "harbor fantasies of incredible new worlds" and are "frustrated by pragmatism, rationalism, and skepticism." Then comes "should" futurism, which Foster describes as a "strong-willed, opinionated, and cocksure confection." Faced with a proclamation that this or that product or path will make things "better," Foster suggests continually asking "why," as a toddler would, to melt the "corporate gibberish" and reveal the "naked ambitions" beneath. "Might" futurists are broad thinkers but can be indecisive, whereas the "don't" sector distrusts power and is drawn to negative consequences while exploring the full lifespan of an idea and its impact. Foster warns against sticking too closely to any of the four mindsets and begs readers to train themselves to think of the future in a way that is "less about what you saw in a sci-fi movie and more about where you buy your chewing gum." Ultimately, the book strikes a hopeful note, as this GenX author points to us now entering "something of a golden age of dread about the future" and hails the younger generation for thinking about the future "from a position of responsibility and long-termism." Sage advice and a much-needed perspective on how to build a future that benefits our species' survival. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
