The Tomorrow Project Anthology: Conversations about the Future

by Brian David Johnson, Madeline Ashby (Contributor), Rob Enderle (Contributor)

There is a way for us to change the future for the better. We can change the future by changing the story we tell ourselves about the future that we are going to live in. If we want to imagine a better future and then build it then we need to change the story we are telling ourselves about the future we want to live in. This doesn’t mean we shouldn’t talk about futures we want to avoid. Sometimes these concerns are more important than identifying the future we want to live in. But, regardless, we need to change the narrative and change how we have conversations about those narratives.

Table of contents
Imagining the Future and Building It by Brian David Johnson 1
Photographic Memory by Madeline Ashby
Click by Kathleen Maher
Hostile Memories by Rob Enderle
Be Careful What You Wish For by Jon Peddie
Incipient Marsupial by Roger Kay
DreamWeaver by Rob Enderle
After Science by Karl Schroeder

Genres: Science Fiction, Fiction

126 pages, ebook

First published October 1, 2011

About the author

The future is BRIAN DAVID JOHNSON's business. From 2009 to 2016, Johnson was Intel Corporation’s first-ever futurist. Currently, he is a professor of practice at Arizona State University’s School for the Future of Innovation in Society, and a Futurist and Fellow at Frost & Sullivan, a visionary innovation company that’s focused on growth. He also works with a broad range of groups including governments, militaries, academics, non-profits, private industries, trade organizations, and startups to help them envision their future. Johnson has more than 40 patents, and he has been published in many consumer and trade publications, including The Wall Street Journal and Slate, and he appears regularly on Bloomberg TV, PBS, Fox News, and the Discovery Channel.

Reviews

[Kelly · Rating 5 out of 5]

If more science fiction books were like this, I would read more science fiction. I heard about this book at South by Southwest and was immediately intrigued by the idea of "science fiction based on science fact." The book did not disappoint. It's clear the stories in this anthology were carefully selected for how well they answer the question "What does the future look like for you?" and balance a fine line of inspiring grandiose ideas of the future while still grounding themselves in a believable world. It's a fairly quick read, but the substance is there. It's inspiring, it's entertaining, and I'd recommend it to anyone.

[Michael Burnam-Fink · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was a fun little treat. The Doctorow novella (Knights of the Rainbow Table) was my favorite work of his yet, and it poses some very deep questions about what we might want to allow on networks when anybody can be Wikileak'd. The short stories created using the Science Fiction Prototyping methodology are a little more varied in quality, but all of them raise some really provocative questions. And the interview with will.i.am that closes out the book is simply a pleasure. I guess I should've known that he was a futurist after seeing the Black Eye Peas superbowl show, but the guy really cares about what tomorrow is going to be like, especially for the ordinary Americans in the ghettos and exurbs who are already falling behind.

To quote will.i.am. "I'm a wannabe geek in the geek. I can hear OG geeks saying, "He ain't real. Get him up out of here." Those gangsta geeks can be hardcore. Those dudes are like gangsta geeks, those guys are worse than Crips and Bloods.

Beautiful.

[Kris · Rating 4 out of 5]

I usually don't read short stories, because I've told myself I don't like them, but I do like them, in particular, short science fiction stories set in the near future, or (as they say in Max Headroom) "twenty minutes into the future." The collection starts off with a Cory Doctorow novella about computer security which is actually rather interesting, though it is told mostly in flashback and one might say it stops just as it was getting good. I enjoyed all of the short stories, though there wasn't anything particularly surprising about the end of "Autoerotic." Possibly the biggest drag was ending the book with two essays/conversations, which I think would have been better served as bookends instead of having them on top of each other. It feels unbalanced as-is.

[Sidsel Pedersen]

Be Careful What You Wish For by Jon Peddie:
So the story is getting 3 star for making me think, for having a cute little twist at the end and for the interesting idea of someone killing random old people off to make room for a new generation, because that is the logical thing to do. I think the story is growing on me as I think on it but that seems to be the case with most of what I read these days. Book blogging does seem to sharpen my appreciation of the stories I read, which is wonderful.

Read my full review: http://t.co/gdtRxrb7fY

[Ashryn · Rating 5 out of 5]

Awesomely exciting and scary as well. Not the least of which is that it is all funded by intel.