Future Perfect: What next and other impossible questions
By (Author) Robyn Williams
Allen & Unwin
Allen & Unwin
1st August 2007
Australia
General
Non Fiction
303.49
180
Width 130mm, Height 195mm
176g
Thinking about the future is not a normal human activity.
Since we first came down out of the trees, most of our waking hours have been preoccupied with staying alive - life expectancy was so short, it was hard to seriously plan ahead. The religions we concocted taught us that the future was in the hands of our gods and we should concentrate mainly on the afterlife.
Future Perfect is a book for those who believe we can shape the future of our earth, and that there is a moral responsibility for us to do just that. It's difficult to disembark once you're here, after all. Written in Robyn Williams' characteristically whimsical and provocative style, it conjures up the possibilities before us in our cities, our employment, our transport and even our sex lives. It confronts the challenges before us and does not shrink from the hard answers.
Witty and immensely entertaining, informative and didactic, Future Perfect will fuel many an argument.
Robyn Williams has presented science programs on ABC radio and television since 1972. Early in his career he made guest appearances in The Goodies, Monty Python's Flying Circus and Dr Who. He is the first journalist to be elected a fellow of the Australian Academy of Science, was a visiting fellow at Balliol College, Oxford, and is a visiting professor at the University of New South Wales. In March 2006, a star in the constellation Carina was named after him. He is planning a visit.