by James Canton
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| List Price: | $24.95 |
| Average Rating: |  |
| Lowest New Price: | $14.50 |
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Product Description
A renowned global futurist prepares businesses and individuals for the radical changes on the horizon
An advisor to three presidents spanning over thirty years, Dr. James Canton identifies probable outcomes and future trends in business, technology, environment, terrorism, population, and medicine to help companies and individuals prepare for the coming complex and volatile global changes, including:
• How climate change and energy trends will reshape the planet
• How astounding medicine trends will enhance people’s lives
• How the rise of China will bring on a new global power struggle
In the tradition of Future Shock, Megatrends, and The Tipping Point, Extreme Future is the essential forecasting handbook for navigating the twenty-first century.
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Average Customer Review:
0 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
 Well organized, 2008-05-24
I purchased this book for a college class. According to the syllabus, I will be reading it in about two weeks, so I cannot tell you if the material is valuable or not. However, after skimming through it, it appears to be well organized.
0 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
What Do You Want The Future To Be?, 2008-04-03
DAVID HOULE'S "THE SHIFT AGE" OPENS OUR EYES TO OUR OWN INCRERDIBLE TIME OF TRANSFORMATION.
IN A TIME WHEN THE SPEED OF PROGRESS CAN RENDER RECENT INNOVATIONS OBSOLETE BEFORE OUR MORNING COFFE COOLS, OUR ABILITY TO INFLUECE THE DESTINY OF MANKIND AND PLANET EARTH WILL REQUIRE A STEADY HAND. HOULE'S ABILITY TO CONNECT THE DOTS AS THEY SPEED US INTO THE FUTURE PROVIDES US WITH A MACRO VIEW OF HOW OUR WORLD WILL BE SHAPED BY SIX CRITICAL FACTORS.
TECHNOLOGY
ENERGY & GLOBAL WARMING
TRANSPORTATION
DISINTERMEDIATION
INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY
MEDIA
THE ONLY CHALLENGE WITH "THE SHIFT AGE" IS SOME REDUNDANCIES IN THE USE OF COLUMNS WRITTEN BY HOULE TO DEVELOP FORWWARD MOVING COMNCEPTS. OTHERWISE, THIS IS A GREAT READ. HOWEVER, BECAUSE OF THE REDUNDANCIES, I GAVE THIS BOOK 4 0F 5 STARS.
IN ALL, THIS IS A VERY INSIGHTFUL AND FORESIGHTFUL BOOK REGARDING THE WHOLE OF HUMANITY AND THE PLANET WE LIVE ON.
4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
 A Powerful and Thought Provoking Glimpse Into Tomorrow!, 2008-02-05
I heard about this book during a presentation by Howard Rheingold at a Rotary Honolulu luncheon. I jotted the name of the book down and bought a copy.
This book has given me a broadened perspective on where our world is today in regards to business, technology, medicine, security, terrorism, population, immigration, the environment, energy, and even what it may mean to be human during the remainder of this century and beyond.
The book is divided into 12 chapters. The first chapter sets the premise: The future can be extreme. The future can be bright, or it can be dark. The concept of "Future-Readiness" is introduced, and how the degree of awareness and readyness can change the probable outcome of the future. Dr. Canton also describes a process of looking at the future to determine the extremes, the causes of the extremes, and thus the choices that can be made today to shape the future.
The next eight chapters address various factors which we are living with today which will have a bearing on how the future develops. These topics include: Energy, Prosperity/Poverty, Human Capital, Medicine, Environment, Globalization, Security, and Advanced Science.
The last three chapters serve to pull together the information in the first nine chapters to "plug in the crystal ball" and examine how the confluence of factors will impact the future of the individual, and the global future with an emphasis on China and the U.S.
Granted, there are some pretty wild and imaginative "predictions" of specific inventions, such as teleportation of matter, but the public thought Leonardo DaVinci crazed when he suggested that people could fly with the aid of machines.
For me, the chapter with the most impact was the last chapter: The Future of America and Democracy. This chapter is a "call to service" for America, and the world. It very powerfully urges that we the people, government and business, consider taking certain actions to address the challenges that face our communities, our nation, our world, and humanity.
This was both a thoroughly enlightening and entertaining read. Two years after publication, this book is prescient and timely reading for anyone who wonders "Where are we going?", "How are we going to get there?", "What could go wrong?", but most importantly "What can we do?".
0 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
 Why this book is extremely discounted, 2007-11-02
70 pages are missing from this version on sale. My review is the only place that mentions this Key fact.
Try the paperback version or even another vendor.
9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
 Too much preening and raw speculation, 2007-10-09
The book contains a lot of preening; the author seems to think it is important to remind us (anecdotally) how many huge companies and heads-of-state he's interacted with. Many of his predictions range from poorly explored (he talks about a hydrogen fuel economy without addressing the fact that hydrogen is just a transport--not a readily available source of energy) to the absurd (predictions that teleportation will be available within decades, given the fact of photonic teleportation which doesn't even slightly approach the complexity of disintegrating, transporting and reintegrating an object!) There's also a lot of political advocacy here; I'd have simply preferred an analysis of technological and cultural trends along with research to back it up.
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