100 Best Futurism Books of All Time

We've ranked the best futurism books using expert recommendations, sales data, and millions of reader ratings. At Shortform, we know books. Our book guides are the best in the world. Learn why.

Homo Deus: A Brief History of Tomorrow book cover1

Homo Deus: A Brief History of Tomorrow

Yuval Noah Harari

5.0
Yuval Noah Harari, author of the critically-acclaimed New York Times bestseller and international phenomenon Sapiens, returns with an equally original, compelling, and provocative book, turning his focus toward humanity’s future, and our quest to upgrade humans into gods.

Over the past century humankind has managed to do the impossible and rein in famine, plague, and war. This may seem hard to acce
Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind book cover2

Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind

Yuval Noah Harari

4.9
100,000 years ago, at least six human species inhabited the earth. Today there is just one. Us. Homo sapiens.

How did our species succeed in the battle for dominance? Why did our foraging ancestors come together to create cities and kingdoms? How did we come to believe in gods, nations and human rights; to trust money, books and laws; and to be enslaved by bureaucracy, timetables and consumerism?
The Singularity is Near: When Humans Transcend Biology book cover3

The Singularity is Near: When Humans Transcend Biology

Ray Kurzweil

4.9
The great inventor and futurist Ray Kurzweil is one of the best-known and controversial advocates for the role of machines in the future of humanity. In his latest, thrilling foray into the future, he envisions an event--thesingularity--in which technological change becomes so rapid and so profound that our bodies and brains will merge with our machines.

The Singularity Is Near portrays what life w
The Inevitable: Understanding the 12 Technological Forces That Will Shape Our Future book cover4

The Inevitable: Understanding the 12 Technological Forces That Will Shape Our Future

Kevin Kelly

4.9
From one of our leading technology thinkers and writers, a guide through the twelve technological imperatives that will shape the next thirty years and transform our lives

Much of what will happen in the next thirty years is inevitable, driven by technological trends that are already in motion. In this fascinating, provocative new book, Kevin Kelly provides an optimistic road map for the future, sh
Abundance: The Future Is Better Than You Think book cover5

Abundance: The Future Is Better Than You Think

Peter H. Diamandis

4.9
Providing abundance is humanity’s grandest challenge—this is a book about how we rise to meet it.

We will soon be able to meet and exceed the basic needs of every man, woman and child on the planet. Abundance for all is within our grasp. This bold, contrarian view, backed up by exhaustive research, introduces our near-term future, where exponentially growing technologies and three other powerful f
1984 book cover6

1984

George Orwell

4.8
A PBS Great American Read Top 100 Pick

With extraordinary relevance and renewed popularity, George Orwell’s 1984 takes on new life in this hardcover edition.

“Orwell saw, to his credit, that the act of falsifying reality is only secondarily a way of changing perceptions. It is, above all, a way of asserting power.”—The New Yorker

In 1984, London is a grim city in the totalitarian state of Oceania
Brave New World book cover7

Brave New World

Aldous Huxley

4.8
Now reissued in a gorgeous hardcover edition: "one of the most prophetic dystopian works of the 20th century" (Wall Street Journal) must be read and understood by anyone concerned with preserving the human spirit in the face of our "brave new world." Huxley's masterpiece has become a bestseller once again after the American election.

Aldous Huxley's profoundly important classic of world literature,
The Future of Humanity: Terraforming Mars, Interstellar Travel, Immortality and Our Destiny Beyond Earth book cover8

The Future of Humanity: Terraforming Mars, Interstellar Travel, Immortality and Our Destiny Beyond Earth

KAKU MICHIO

4.7
The #1 bestselling author of The Future of the Mind brings us a stunning new vision of our future in space.

Human civilization is on the verge of spreading beyond Earth. More than a possibility, it is becoming a necessity: whether our hand is forced by climate change and resource depletion or whether future catastrophes compel us to abandon Earth, one day we will make our homes among the stars.

Worl
Zero to One: Notes on Startups, or How to Build the Future book cover9

Zero to One: Notes on Startups, or How to Build the Future

Peter Thiel

4.7
If you want to build a better future, you must believe in secrets.

The great secret of our time is that there are still uncharted frontiers to explore and new inventions to create. In Zero to One, legendary entrepreneur and investor Peter Thiel shows how we can find singular ways to create those new things.

Thiel begins with the contrarian premise that we live in an age of technological stagnation,
21 Lessons for the 21st Century book cover10

21 Lessons for the 21st Century

Yuval Noah Harari

4.7
In Sapiens, he explored our past. In Homo Deus, he looked to our future. Now, one of the most innovative thinkers on the planet turns to the present to make sense of today's most pressing issues.

How do computers and robots change the meaning of being human? How do we deal with the epidemic of fake news? Are nations and religions still relevant? What should we teach our children?

Yuval Noah Harari's
Life 3.0: Being Human in the Age of Artificial Intelligence book cover11

Life 3.0: Being Human in the Age of Artificial Intelligence

Max Tegmark

4.6
How will Artificial Intelligence affect crime, war, justice, jobs, society and our very sense of being human? The rise of AI has the potential to transform our future more than any other technology--and there's nobody better qualified or situated to explore that future than Max Tegmark, an MIT professor who's helped mainstream research on how to keep AI beneficial.

How can we grow our prosperity th
Factfulness: Ten Reasons We're Wrong About the World – and Why Things Are Better Than You Think book cover12

Factfulness: Ten Reasons We're Wrong About the World – and Why Things Are Better Than You Think

Hans Rosling

4.6
Factfulness: The stress-reducing habit of only carrying opinions for which you have strong supporting facts.

When asked simple questions about global trends—what percentage of the world’s population live in poverty; why the world’s population is increasing; how many girls finish school—we systematically get the answers wrong. So wrong that a chimpanzee choosing answers at random will consistently o
Superintelligence: Paths, Dangers, Strategies book cover13

Superintelligence: Paths, Dangers, Strategies

Nick Bostrom

4.6
Superintelligence asks the questions: what happens when machines surpass humans in general intelligence? Will artificial agents save or destroy us? Nick Bostrom lays the foundation for understanding the future of humanity and intelligent life.

The human brain has some capabilities that the brains of other animals lack. It is to these distinctive capabilities that our species owes its dominant posi
Ready Player One book cover14

Ready Player One

Ernest Cline

4.6
The bestselling cult classic--soon to be a major motion picture directed by Steven Spielberg.



At once wildly original and stuffed with irresistible nostalgia, READY PLAYER ONE is a spectacularly genre-busting, ambitious, and charming debut--part quest novel, part love story, and part virtual space opera set in a universe where spell-slinging mages battle giant Japanese robots, entire planets are in
Elon Musk: Tesla, SpaceX, and the Quest for a Fantastic Future book cover15

Elon Musk: Tesla, SpaceX, and the Quest for a Fantastic Future

Ashlee Vance

4.6
Elon Musk, the entrepreneur and innovator behind SpaceX, Tesla, and SolarCity, sold one of his internet companies, PayPal, for $1.5 billion. Ashlee Vance captures the full spectacle and arc of the genius's life and work, from his tumultuous upbringing in South Africa and flight to the United States to his dramatic technical innovations and entrepreneurial pursuits. Vance uses Musk's story to explo
The Sixth Extinction: An Unnatural History book cover16

The Sixth Extinction: An Unnatural History

Elizabeth Kolbert

4.6
Over the last half-billion years, there have been five mass extinctions, when the diversity of life on earth suddenly and dramatically contracted. Scientists around the world are currently monitoring the sixth extinction, predicted to be the most devastating extinction event since the asteroid impact that wiped out the dinosaurs. This time around, the cataclysm is us.

In prose that is at once fran
Dune (Dune Chronicles, #1) book cover17

Dune (Dune Chronicles, #1)

Frank Herbert

4.6
A deluxe hardcover edition of the best-selling science-fiction book of all time—part of Penguin Galaxy, a collectible series of six sci-fi/fantasy classics, featuring a series introduction by Neil Gaiman.

Science fiction’s supreme masterpiece, "Dune" will be forever considered a triumph of the imagination. Set on the desert planet Arrakis, it is the story of the boy Paul Atreides, who will become t
18

Physics of the Future: How Science Will Shape Human Destiny and Our Daily Lives by the Year 2100

Michio Kaku

4.6
Imagine, if you can, the world in the year 2100.

In Physics of the Future, Michio Kaku—the New York Times bestselling author of Physics of the Impossible—gives us a stunning, provocative, and exhilarating vision of the coming century based on interviews with over three hundred of the world's top scientists who are already inventing the future in their labs. The result is the most authoritative and
The Next 100 Years: A Forecast for the 21st Century book cover19

The Next 100 Years: A Forecast for the 21st Century

George Friedman

4.5
A fascinating, eye-opening and often shocking look at what lies ahead for the U.S. and the world from one of our most incisive futurists.

In his thought-provoking new book, George Friedman, founder of STRATFOR—the preeminent private intelligence and forecasting firm—focuses on what he knows best, the future. Positing that civilization is at the dawn of a new era, he offers a lucid, highly readable
Snow Crash book cover20

Snow Crash

Neal Stephenson

4.5
In the near future, Americans excel at only two things: writing software and delivering pizza in less than 30 minutes.

Franchises line the Los Angeles freeway as far as the eye can see: Reverend Wayne's Pearly Gates, Mr. Lee's Greater Hong Kong, Uncle Enzo's CosaNostra Pizza, Incorporated. The only relief from the sea of logos is within the well-guarded borders of the autonomous city-states that la
The Martian book cover21

The Martian

Andy Weir

4.5
Note: Alternate-Cover Edition for this ASIN can be found here

Six days ago, astronaut Mark Watney became one of the first people to walk on Mars.

Now, he's sure he'll be the first person to die there.

After a dust storm nearly kills him and forces his crew to evacuate while thinking him dead, Mark finds himself stranded and completely alone with no way to even signal Earth that he’s alive—and even i
Future Shock book cover22

Future Shock

Alvin Toffler

4.5
"The best study of our times that I know. . . . Of all the books that I have read in the last 20 years, it is by far the one that has taught me the most."--Le Figaro

Future Shock is about the present. Future Shock is about what is happening today to people and groups who are overwhelmed by change. Change affects our products, communities, organizations--even our patterns of friendship and love.

Fut
23

How to Create a Mind: The Secret of Human Thought Revealed

Ray Kurzweil

4.4
The bold futurist and bestselling author explores the limitless potential of reverse-engineering the human brain

Ray Kurzweil is arguably today’s most influential—and often controversial—futurist. In How to Create a Mind, Kurzweil presents a provocative exploration of the most important project in human-machine civilization—reverse engineering the brain to understand precisely how it works and usin
The Second Machine Age: Work, Progress, and Prosperity in a Time of Brilliant Technologies book cover24

The Second Machine Age: Work, Progress, and Prosperity in a Time of Brilliant Technologies

Erik Brynjolfsson

4.4
A revolution is under way. In recent years, Google's autonomous cars have logged thousands of miles on American highways and IBM's Watson trounced the best human Jeopardy! players. Digital technologies with hardware, software, and networks at their core will in the near future diagnose diseases more accurately than doctors can, apply enormous data sets to transform retailing, and accomplish many t
25

The Age of Spiritual Machines: When Computers Exceed Human Intelligence

Ray Kurzweil

4.4
Ray Kurzweil is the inventor of the most innovative and compelling technology of our era, an international authority on artificial intelligence, and one of our greatest living visionaries. Now he offers a framework for envisioning the twenty-first century--an age in which the marriage of human sensitivity and artificial intelligence fundamentally alters and improves the way we live. Kurzweil's pro
26

Enlightenment Now: The Case for Reason, Science, Humanism, and Progress

Steven Pinker

4.4
If you think the world is coming to an end, think again: people are living longer, healthier, freer, and happier lives, and while our problems are formidable, the solutions lie in the Enlightenment ideal of using reason and science.

Is the world really falling apart? Is the ideal of progress obsolete? In this elegant assessment of the human condition in the third millennium, cognitive scientist and
Ender's Game book cover27

Ender's Game

Orson Scott Card

4.4
Once again, Earth is under attack. An alien species is poised for a final assault. The survival of humanity depends on a military genius who can defeat the aliens. But who?

Ender Wiggin. Brilliant. Ruthless. Cunning. A tactical and strategic master. And a child.

Recruited for military training by the world government, Ender's childhood ends the moment he enters his new home: Battle School. Among the
28

Utopia for Realists: And How We Can Get There

Rutger (Translated by Elizabeth Manton) Bregman

4.4
We live in a time of unprecedented upheaval, with questions about the future, society, work, happiness, family and money, and yet no political party of the right or left is providing us with answers. Rutger Bregman, a bestselling Dutch historian, explains that it needn't be this way.

Bregman shows that we can construct a society with visionary ideas that are, in fact, wholly implementable. Every mi
29

Rise of the Robots: Technology and the Threat of a Jobless Future

Martin Ford

4.4
What are the jobs of the future? How many will there be? And who will have them? We might imagine—and hope—that today's industrial revolution will unfold like the last: even as some jobs are eliminated, more will be created to deal with the new innovations of a new era. In Rise of the Robots, Silicon Valley entrepreneur Martin Ford argues that this is absolutely not the case. As technology continu
Neuromancer book cover30

Neuromancer

William Gibson, Neil Gaiman

4.4
A deluxe hardcover edition of the pioneering cyberpunk novel that predicted our obsession with the Internet—part of Penguin Galaxy, a collectible series of six sci-fi/fantasy classics, featuring a series introduction by Neil Gaiman.

Before the Internet was commonplace, William Gibson showed us the Matrix—a world within the world, the representation of every byte of data in cyberspace. Henry Dorsett
Out of Control: The New Biology of Machines, Social Systems, and the Economic World book cover31

Out of Control: The New Biology of Machines, Social Systems, and the Economic World

Kevin Kelly

4.4
Out of Control chronicles the dawn of a new era in which the machines and systems that drive our economy are so complex and autonomous as to be indistinguishable from living things.
The Rational Optimist: How Prosperity Evolves book cover32

The Rational Optimist: How Prosperity Evolves

Matt Ridley

4.3
Life is getting better—and at an accelerating rate. Food availability, income, and life span are up; disease, child mortality, and violence are down — all across the globe. Though the world is far from perfect, necessities and luxuries alike are getting cheaper; population growth is slowing; Africa is following Asia out of poverty; the Internet, the mobile phone, and container shipping are enrichi
Fahrenheit 451 book cover33

Fahrenheit 451

Ray Bradbury

4.3
Guy Montag is a fireman. In his world, where television rules and literature is on the brink of extinction, firemen start fires rather than put them out. His job is to destroy the most illegal of commodities, the printed book, along with the houses in which they are hidden.

Montag never questions the destruction and ruin his actions produce, returning each day to his bland life and wife, Mildred, w
The Beginning of Infinity: Explanations That Transform the World book cover34

The Beginning of Infinity: Explanations That Transform the World

David Deutsch

4.3
The Beginning of Infinity: Explanations That Transform the World
The Handmaid's Tale book cover35

The Handmaid's Tale

Margaret Atwood

4.3
Before The Testaments, there was The Handmaid’s Tale: an instant classic and eerily prescient cultural phenomenon, from “the patron saint of feminist dystopian fiction” (New York Times).

The Handmaid’s Tale is a novel of such power that the reader will be unable to forget its images and its forecast. Set in the near future, it describes life in what was once the United States and is now called the
36

The Industries of the Future

Alec Ross

4.3
This book answers the question: 'What's next?' The Internet had a world-changing impact on businesses and the global community over the twenty years from 1994 to 2014. In the next ten years, change will happen even faster.

As Hillary Clinton's Senior Advisor for Innovation, Alec Ross travelled nearly a million miles to forty-one countries, the equivalent of two round-trips to the moon. From refuge
AI Superpowers: China, Silicon Valley, and the New World Order book cover37

AI Superpowers: China, Silicon Valley, and the New World Order

Kai-Fu Lee

4.3
Dr. Kai-Fu Lee—one of the world’s most respected experts on AI and China—reveals that China has suddenly caught up to the US at an astonishingly rapid and unexpected pace. In AI Superpowers, Kai-fu Lee argues powerfully that because of these unprecedented developments in AI, dramatic changes will be happening much sooner than many of us expected. Indeed, as the US-Sino AI competition begins to hea
The Future of the Mind: The Scientific Quest to Understand, Enhance, and Empower the Mind book cover38

The Future of the Mind: The Scientific Quest to Understand, Enhance, and Empower the Mind

Michio Kaku

4.3
The New York Times best-selling author of Physics of the Impossible, Physics of the Future and Hyperspace tackles the most fascinating and complex object in the known universe: the human brain.

For the first time in history, the secrets of the living brain are being revealed by a battery of high tech brain scans devised by physicists. Now what was once solely the province of science fiction has bec
Oryx and Crake (MaddAddam, #1) book cover39

Oryx and Crake (MaddAddam, #1)

Margaret Atwood

4.2
Oryx and Crake is at once an unforgettable love story and a compelling vision of the future. Snowman, known as Jimmy before mankind was overwhelmed by a plague, is struggling to survive in a world where he may be the last human, and mourning the loss of his best friend, Crake, and the beautiful and elusive Oryx whom they both loved. In search of answers, Snowman embarks on a journey–with the help
Pale Blue Dot: A Vision of the Human Future in Space book cover40

Pale Blue Dot: A Vision of the Human Future in Space

Carl Sagan

4.2
Pulitzer Prize-winning author Carl Sagan traces our exploration of space and suggests that our very survival may depend on the wise use of other worlds. This stirring book reveals how scientific discovery has altered our perception of who we are and where we stand, and challenges us to weigh what we will do with that knowledge. Photos, many in color.
Lifespan: Why We Age—and Why We Don't Have To book cover41

Lifespan: Why We Age—and Why We Don't Have To

David Sinclair and Matthew D. LaPlante

4.2
It’s a seemingly undeniable truth that aging is inevitable. But what if everything we’ve been taught to believe about aging is wrong? What if we could choose our lifespan?

In this groundbreaking book, Dr. David Sinclair, leading world authority on genetics and longevity, reveals a bold new theory for why we age. As he writes: “Aging is a disease, and that disease is treatable.”

This book takes us t
The Giver (The Giver, #1) book cover42

The Giver (The Giver, #1)

Lois Lowry

4.2
Twelve-year-old Jonas lives in a seemingly ideal world. Not until he is given his life assignment as the Receiver does he begin to understand the dark secrets behind this fragile community.
43

What Technology Wants

Kevin Kelly

4.2
From the author of the New York Times bestseller The Inevitable-- a sweeping vision of technology as a living force that can expand our individual potential


In this provocative book, one of today's most respected thinkers turns the conversation about technology on its head by viewing technology as a natural system, an extension of biological evolution. By mapping the behavior of life, we paradoxic
The Three-Body Problem (Remembrance of Earth’s Past #1) book cover44

The Three-Body Problem (Remembrance of Earth’s Past #1)

Cixin Liu, Ken Liu

4.2
The Three-Body Problem is the first chance for English-speaking readers to experience the Hugo Award-winning phenomenon from China's most beloved science fiction author, Liu Cixin.

Set against the backdrop of China's Cultural Revolution, a secret military project sends signals into space to establish contact with aliens. An alien civilization on the brink of destruction captures the signal and plan
45

The War on Normal People: The Truth About America's Disappearing Jobs and Why Universal Basic Income Is Our Future

Andrew Yang

4.2
From entrepreneur Andrew Yang, the founder of Venture for America, an eye-opening look at how new technologies are erasing millions of jobs before our eyes-and a rallying cry for the urgent steps America must take, including Universal Basic Income, to stabilize our economy.

The shift toward automation is about to create a tsunami of unemployment. Not in the distant future--now. One recent estimate
Our Final Invention: Artificial Intelligence and the End of the Human Era book cover46

Our Final Invention: Artificial Intelligence and the End of the Human Era

James Barrat

4.2
In as little as a decade, artificial intelligence could match, then surpass human intelligence. Corporations & government agencies around the world are pouring billions into achieving AI’s Holy Grail—human-level intelligence. Once AI has attained it, scientists argue, it will have survival drives much like our own. We may be forced to compete with a rival more cunning, more powerful & more alien t
Ending Aging: The Rejuvenation Breakthroughs That Could Reverse Human Aging in Our Lifetime book cover47

Ending Aging: The Rejuvenation Breakthroughs That Could Reverse Human Aging in Our Lifetime

Aubrey de Grey and Michael Ra

4.2
MUST WE AGE?

A long life in a healthy, vigorous, youthful body has always been one of humanity's greatest dreams. Recent progress in genetic manipulations and calorie-restricted diets in laboratory animals hold forth the promise that someday science will enable us to exert total control over our own biological aging.

Nearly all scientists who study the biology of aging agree that we will someday be
Physics of the Impossible book cover48

Physics of the Impossible

Michio Kaku

4.2
A fascinating exploration of the science of the impossible—from death rays and force fields to invisibility cloaks—revealing to what extent such technologies might be achievable decades or millennia into the future.

One hundred years ago, scientists would have said that lasers, televisions, and the atomic bomb were beyond the realm of physical possibility. In Physics of the Impossible, the renowned
49

Soonish: Ten Emerging Technologies That'll Improve and/or Ruin Everything

Kelly Weinersmith, Zach Weinersmith

4.2
From a top scientist and the creator of the hugely popular web comic Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal, an illustrated investigation into future technologies

What will the world of tomorrow be like? How does progress happen? And why do we not have a lunar colony already?

In this book, Zach and Kelly Weinersmith give us a snapshot of the transformative technologies that are coming next - from robot s
50

Catching Fire (The Hunger Games, #2)

Suzanne Collins

4.2
SPARKS ARE IGNITING.
FLAMES ARE SPREADING.
AND THE CAPITAL WANTS REVENGE.


Against all odds, Katniss Everdeen has survived the Hunger Games. She and fellow District 12 tribute Peeta Mellark are miraculously still alive. Katniss should be relieved, happy even. Yet nothing is the way Katniss wishes it to be. Gale holds her at an icy distance. Peeta has turned his back on her completely. And there are wh
51

Visions: How Science Will Revolutionize the 21st Century

Michio Kaku

4.2
In Visions, physicist and author Michio Kaku examines the great scientific revolutions that have dramatically reshaped the twentieth century--the quantum mechanics, biogenetics, and artificial intelligence--and shows how they will change and alter science and the way we live.

The next century will witness more far-reaching scientific revolutions, as we make the transition from unraveling the secret
52

The Time Machine

H.G. Wells

4.2
“I’ve had a most amazing time....”

So begins the Time Traveller’s astonishing firsthand account of his journey 800,000 years beyond his own era—and the story that launched H.G. Wells’s successful career and earned him his reputation as the father of science fiction. With a speculative leap that still fires the imagination, Wells sends his brave explorer to face a future burdened with our greatest h
Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge, and the Teachings of Plants book cover53

Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge, and the Teachings of Plants

Robin Wall Kimmerer

4.2
As a botanist, Robin Wall Kimmerer has been trained to ask questions of nature with the tools of science. As a member of the Citizen Potawatomi Nation, she embraces the notion that plants and animals are our oldest teachers. In Braiding Sweetgrass, Kimmerer brings these lenses of knowledge together to show that the awakening of a wider ecological consciousness requires the acknowledgment and celeb
54

The Third Wave

Alvin Toffler

4.2
The Third Wave makes startling sense of the violent changes now battering our world. Its sweeping synthesis casts fresh light on our new forms of marriage and family, on today's dramatic changes in business and economics. It explains the role of cults, the new definitions of work, play, love, and success. It points toward new forms of twenty-first-century democracy.
55

2001: A Space Odyssey

Arthur C. Clarke, Neil Gaiman

4.2
A deluxe hardcover edition of the wondrous space adventure that is the basis for Stanley Kubrick's Oscar-winning film--now celebrating its 50th anniversary

Part of Penguin Galaxy, a collectible series of six sci-fi/fantasy classics, featuring a series introduction by Neil Gaiman

Winner of the AIGA + Design Observer 50 Books - 50 Covers competition

Written when landing on the moon was still a dream,
56

The Diamond Age: Or, A Young Lady's Illustrated Primer

Neal Stephenson

4.2
The Diamond Age: Or, A Young Lady's Illustrated Primer is a postcyberpunk novel by Neal Stephenson. It is to some extent a science fiction coming-of-age story, focused on a young girl named Nell, and set in a future world in which nanotechnology affects all aspects of life. The novel deals with themes of education, social class, ethnicity, and the nature of artificial intelligence.
57

Bold: How to Go Big, Create Wealth and Impact the World

Peter H. Diamandis

4.2
Alternate cover for this ISBN can be found here

From the coauthors of the New York Times bestseller Abundance comes their much anticipated follow-up: Bold—a radical, how-to guide for using exponential technologies, moonshot thinking, and crowd-powered tools to create extraordinary wealth while also positively impacting the lives of billions.

Bold unfolds in three parts. Part One focuses on the expon
58

Engines of Creation: The Coming Era of Nanotechnology

K. Eric Drexler

4.1
This brilliant work heralds the new age of nanotechnology, which will give us thorough and inexpensive control of the structure of matter. Drexler examines the enormous implications of these developments for medicine, the economy, and the environment, and makes astounding yet well-founded projections for the future.
59

Fantastic Voyage: Live Long Enough to Live Forever

Ray Kurzweil

4.1
One of the most respected scientists and futurists in America teams up with an expert on human longevity, to show how we can tap today's revolution in biotechnology and nanotechnology to virtually live forever.

Startling discoveries in the areas of genomics, biotechnology, and nanotechnology are occurring every day. The rewards of this research, some of it as spectacular as what was once thought of
The Uninhabitable Earth: Life After Warming book cover60

The Uninhabitable Earth: Life After Warming

David Wallace-Wells

4.1
It is worse, much worse, than you think. If your anxiety about global warming is dominated by fears of sea-level rise, you are barely scratching the surface of what terrors are possible. In California, wildfires now rage year-round, destroying thousands of homes. Across the US, "500-year" storms pummel communities month after month, and floods displace tens of millions annually.

This is only a prev
The World Without Us book cover61

The World Without Us

Alan Weisman

4.1
A penetrating, page-turning tour of a post-human Earth

In The World Without Us, Alan Weisman offers an utterly original approach to questions of humanity's impact on the planet: he asks us to envision our Earth, without us. In this far-reaching narrative, Weisman explains how our massive infrastructure would collapse and finally vanish without human presence; which everyday items may become immorta
Seveneves book cover62

Seveneves

Neal Stephenson

4.1
What would happen if the world were ending?

A catastrophic event renders the earth a ticking time bomb. In a feverish race against the inevitable, nations around the globe band together to devise an ambitious plan to ensure the survival of humanity far beyond our atmosphere, in outer space.

But the complexities and unpredictability of human nature coupled with unforeseen challenges and dangers threa
63

Four Futures: Life After Capitalism

Peter Frase

4.1
An exhilarating exploration into the utopias and dystopias that could develop from present society

Peter Frase argues that increasing automation and a growing scarcity of resources, thanks to climate change, will bring it all tumbling down. In Four Futures, Frase imagines how this post-capitalist world might look, deploying the tools of both social science and speculative fiction to explore what co
The Future Is Faster Than You Think: How Converging Technologies Are Disrupting Business, Industries, and Our Lives book cover64

The Future Is Faster Than You Think: How Converging Technologies Are Disrupting Business, Industries, and Our Lives

Peter H. Diamandis

4.1
From the New York Times bestselling authors of Abundance and Bold comes a practical playbook for technological convergence in our modern era.

In their book Abundance, bestselling authors and futurists Peter Diamandis and Steven Kotler tackled grand global challenges, such as poverty, hunger, and energy. Then, in Bold, they chronicled the use of exponential technologies that allowed the emergence of
Death's End (Remembrance of Earth’s Past, #3) book cover65

Death's End (Remembrance of Earth’s Past, #3)

Cixin Liu

4.1
Half a century after the Doomsday Battle, the uneasy balance of Dark Forest Deterrence keeps the Trisolaran invaders at bay. Earth enjoys unprecedented prosperity due to the infusion of Trisolaran knowledge. With human science advancing daily and the Trisolarans adopting Earth culture, it seems that the two civilizations will soon be able to co-exist peacefully as equals without the terrible threa
On Intelligence: How a New Understanding of the Brain Will Lead to the Creation of Truly Intelligent Machines book cover66

On Intelligence: How a New Understanding of the Brain Will Lead to the Creation of Truly Intelligent Machines

Jeff Hawkins, Sandra Blakeslee

4.1
From the inventor of the PalmPilot comes a new and compelling theory of intelligence, brain function, and the future of intelligent machines

Jeff Hawkins, the man who created the PalmPilot, Treo smart phone, and other handheld devices, has reshaped our relationship to computers. Now he stands ready to revolutionize both neuroscience and computing in one stroke, with a new understanding of intellige
The Limits To Growth: the thirty year update book cover67

The Limits To Growth: the thirty year update

Donella H. Meadows

4.1
Incorporating the thinking on sustainability, ecological footprinting and limits, this book presents future overshoot scenarios and makes an urgent case for a rapid readjustment of the global economy toward a sustainable path. It is suitable for those concerned with our common future.
The Martian Chronicles book cover68

The Martian Chronicles

Ray Bradbury

4.1
The strange and wonderful tale of man’s experiences on Mars, filled with intense images and astonishing visions. Now part of the Voyager Classics collection.

The Martian Chronicles tells the story of humanity’s repeated attempts to colonize the red planet. The first men were few. Most succumbed to a disease they called the Great Loneliness when they saw their home planet dwindle to the size of a fi
A Crack in Creation: Gene Editing and the Unthinkable Power to Control Evolution book cover69

A Crack in Creation: Gene Editing and the Unthinkable Power to Control Evolution

Jennifer A. Doudna, Samuel H. Sternberg

4.1
A trailblazing biologist grapples with her role in the biggest scientific discovery of our era: a cheap, easy way of rewriting genetic code, with nearly limitless promise and peril.

Not since the atomic bomb has a technology so alarmed its inventors that they warned the world about its use. Not, that is, until the spring of 2015, when biologist Jennifer Doudna called for a worldwide moratorium on
70

Exhalation: Stories

Ted Chiang

4.1
An alternate cover edition for this book can be found here.

From an award-winning science fiction writer (whose short story "The Story of Your Life" was the basis for the Academy Award-nominated movie Arrival), the long-awaited new collection of stunningly original, humane, and already celebrated short stories



This much-anticipated second collection of stories is signature Ted Chiang, full of revela
71

Who Owns the Future?

Jaron Lanier

4.1
The “brilliant” and “daringly original” (The New York Times) critique of digital networks from the “David Foster Wallace of tech” (London Evening Standard)—asserting that to fix our economy, we must fix our information economy.

Jaron Lanier is the father of virtual reality and one of the world’s most brilliant thinkers. Who Owns the Future? is his visionary reckoning with the most urgent economic a
72

Binti (Binti, #1)

Nnedi Okorafo

4.1
Her name is Binti, and she is the first of the Himba people ever to be offered a place at Oomza University, the finest institution of higher learning in the galaxy. But to accept the offer will mean giving up her place in her family to travel between the stars among strangers who do not share her ways or respect her customs.

Knowledge comes at a cost, one that Binti is willing to pay, but her journ
73

Prelude to Foundation (Foundation: Prequel, #1)

Isaac Asimov

4.1
It is the year 12,020 G.E. and Emperor Cleon I sits uneasily on the Imperial throne of Trantor. Here in the great multidomed capital of the Galactic Empire, forty billion people have created a civilization of unimaginable technological and cultural complexity. Yet Cleon knows there are those who would see him fall—those whom he would destroy if only he could read the future.

Hari Seldon has come t
74

The Positronic Man (Robot #0.6)

Isaac Asimov, Robert Silverberg

4.1
Powerful and haunting, The Positronic Man is an unforgettable novel that redefines Isaac Asimov's and Robert Silverberg's place among the greatest science fiction authors of all time.

In the twenty-first century the creation of the positronic brain leads to the development of robot laborers and revolutionizes life on Earth. But to the Martin family, their household robot NDR-113 is more than a trus

75

Future Crimes: Everything Is Connected, Everyone Is Vulnerable, and What We Can Do About It

Marc Goodman

4.1
One of the world’s leading authorities on global security, Marc Goodman takes readers deep into the digital underground to expose the alarming ways criminals, corporations, and even countries are using new and emerging technologies against you—and how this makes everyone more vulnerable than ever imagined.


Technological advances have benefited our world in immeasurable ways, but there is an omino
76

The Dispossessed

Ursula K. Le Guin

4.1
Shevek, a brilliant physicist, decides to take action. He will seek answers, question the unquestionable, and attempt to tear down the walls of hatred that have isolated his planet of anarchists from the rest of the civilized universe. To do this dangerous task will mean giving up his family and possibly his life—Shevek must make the unprecedented journey to the utopian mother planet, Urras, to ch
77

Anthem

Ayn Rand

4.1
This expanded edition of Ayn Rand's classic tale of a future dark age of the great "We"--in which individuals have no name, no independence, and no values--is a beautifully written, powerful novel that projects current social trends into the future, and anticipates such later Rand masterpieces as The Fountainhead and Atlas Shrugged.
Parable of the Sower book cover78

Parable of the Sower

Octavia E. Butler, Gloria Steinem

4.1
Parable of the Sower is the Butlerian odyssey of one woman who is twice as feeling in a world that has become doubly dehumanized. The time is 2025. The place is California, where small walled communities must protect themselves from hordes of desperate scavengers and roaming bands of people addicted to a drug that activates an orgasmic desire to burn, rape, and murder. When one small community is
Regenesis: How Synthetic Biology Will Reinvent Nature and Ourselves book cover79

Regenesis: How Synthetic Biology Will Reinvent Nature and Ourselves

George M. Church, Ed Regis

4.0
A HARVARD BIOLOGIST AND MASTER INVENTOR EXPLORES HOW NEW BIOTECHNOLOGIES WILL ENABLE US TO BRING SPECIES BACK FROM THE DEAD, UNLOCK VAST SUPPLIES OF RENEWABLE ENERGY, AND EXTEND HUMAN LIFE.

In 'REGENESIS', George Church and science writer Ed Regis explore the possibilities of the emerging field of synthetic biology. Synthetic biology, in which living organisms are selectively altered by modifying s
80

Makers: The New Industrial Revolution

Chris Anderson

4.0
Wired magazine editor and bestselling author Chris Anderson takes you to the front lines of a new industrial revolution as today’s entrepreneurs, using open source design and 3-D printing, bring manufacturing to the desktop. In an age of custom-fabricated, do-it-yourself product design and creation, the collective potential of a million garage tinkerers and enthusiasts is about to be unleashed, dr
81

Whole Earth Discipline: Why Dense Cities, Nuclear Power, Transgenic Crops, Restored Wildlands, and Geoengineering Are Necessary

Stewart Brand

4.0
"This is a very scary book by a very bright man, offering a picture of humanity's future that is both ominous and exhilarating."
-Edward O. Wilson


This eye-opening book by the legendary author of the National Book Award-winning Whole Earth Catalog persuasively details a new approach to our stewardship of the planet. Lifelong ecologist and futurist Stewart Brand relies on scientific rigor to shatt
The Sovereign Individual: How to Survive and Thrive During the Collapse of the Welfare State book cover82

The Sovereign Individual: How to Survive and Thrive During the Collapse of the Welfare State

James Dale Davidson

4.0
In Blood in the Streets and The Great Reckoning, Davidson and Rees-Mogg foresaw many of the cataclysmic effects of the shift from an industrial to an information-based society. In their new book, they prepare readers for the chaotic upheaval that lies ahead and outline the far-reaching, practical consequences of adapting for the new global economy and the information age.
Consider Phlebas (Culture, #1) book cover83

Consider Phlebas (Culture, #1)

Iain M. Banks

4.0
The first book in Iain M. Banks's seminal science fiction series, The Culture. Consider Phlebas introduces readers to the utopian conglomeration of human and alien races that explores the nature of war, morality, and the limitless bounds of mankind's imagination.

The war raged across the galaxy. Billions had died, billions more were doomed. Moons, planets, the very stars themselves, faced destructi
84

下一個十年:香港的光榮年代?/The Next Decade: Hong Kong's Glorious Era?

George Friedman, Bruce Turk, et al

4.0
85

Nexus (Nexus, #1)

Ramez Naam, ARGH! Oxford

4.0
Mankind gets an upgrade

In the near future, the experimental nano-drug Nexus can link humans together, mind to mind. There are some who want to improve it. There are some who want to eradicate it. And there are others who just want to exploit it.

When a young scientist is caught improving Nexus, he’s thrust over his head into a world of danger and international espionage – for there is far more at s
86

The Fourth Age: Smart Robots, Conscious Computers, and the Future of Humanity

Byron Reese

4.0
“The Fourth Age not only discusses what the rise of A.I. will mean for us, it also forces readers to challenge their preconceptions. And it manages to do all this in a way that is both entertaining and engaging.” —The New York Times

As we approach a great turning point in history when technology is poised to redefine what it means to be human, The Fourth Age offers fascinating insight into AI, robo
87

WTF?: What's the Future and Why It's Up to Us

Tim O'Reilly

4.0
WTF? can be an expression of amazement or an expression of dismay. In today’s economy, we have far too much dismay along with our amazement, and technology bears some of the blame. In this combination of memoir, business strategy guide, and call to action, Tim O'Reilly, Silicon Valley’s leading intellectual and the founder of O’Reilly Media, explores the upside and the potential downsides of today
88

Parable of the Talents (Earthseed, #2)

Octavia E. Butler

4.0
This Nebula Award-winning sequel to Parable of the Sower continues the story of Lauren Olamina in socially and economically depressed California in the 2030s. Convinced that her community should colonize the stars, Lauren and her followers make preparations. But the collapse of society and rise of fanatics result in Lauren's followers being enslaved, and her daughter stolen from her. Now, Lauren m
89

Black Quantum Futurism Space-Time Collapse I: From the Congo to the Carolinas

Rasheedah Phillips Esq., Rasheedah Phillips, et al.

4.0
Space-Time Collapse is a new experimental writing, sound and image series that applies Black Quantum Futurism theory and practices to spatiotemporal collapse events and phenomenon.
90

Lock In (Lock In, #1)

John Scalzi

4.0
Not too long from today, a new, highly contagious virus makes its way across the globe. Most who get sick experience nothing worse than flu, fever and headaches. But for the unlucky one percent - and nearly five million souls in the United States alone - the disease causes "Lock In": Victims fully awake and aware, but unable to move or respond to stimulus. The disease affects young, old, rich, poo
Hello World: Being Human in the Age of Algorithms book cover91

Hello World: Being Human in the Age of Algorithms

Hannah Fry

4.0
A look inside the algorithms that are shaping our lives and the dilemmas they bring with them.

If you were accused of a crime, who would you rather decide your sentence—a mathematically consistent algorithm incapable of empathy or a compassionate human judge prone to bias and error? What if you want to buy a driverless car and must choose between one programmed to save as many lives as possible and
Stories of Your Life and Others book cover92

Stories of Your Life and Others

Ted Chiang

4.0

Ted Chiang's first published story, "Tower of Babylon," won the Nebula Award in 1990. Subsequent stories have won the Asimov's SF Magazine reader poll, a second Nebula Award, the Theodore Sturgeon Memorial Award, and the Sidewise Award for alternate history. He won the John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer in 1992. Story for story, he is the most honored young writer in modern SF.

Now, collect

93

Operating Manual for Spaceship Earth

R. Buckminster Fuller

4.0
In this essay on man Mr. Fuller expresses what may well be his penultimate view of the human condition. Here, in a mood at once philosophical and involved, Mr. Fuller traces man s intellectual evolution and weighs his capability for survival on this magnificent craft, this Spaceship Earth, this superbly designed sphere of almost negligible dimension in the great vastness of space.
Mr. Fuller is opt
94

Parallel Worlds: A Journey through Creation, Higher Dimensions, and the Future of the Cosmos

Michio Kaku

4.0
In this thrilling journey into the mysteries of our cosmos, bestselling author Michio Kaku takes us on a dizzying ride to explore black holes and time machines, multidimensional space and, most tantalizing of all, the possibility that parallel universes may lay alongside our own. Kaku skillfully guides us through the latest innovations in string theory and its latest iteration, M-theory, which pos
The Master Switch: The Rise and Fall of Information Empires book cover95

The Master Switch: The Rise and Fall of Information Empires

Tim Wu

4.0
In this age of an open Internet, it is easy to forget that every American information industry, beginning with the telephone, has eventually been taken captive by some ruthless monopoly or cartel. With all our media now traveling a single network, an unprecedented potential is building for centralized control over what Americans see and hear. Could history repeat itself with the next industrial co
96

Green Mars (Mars Trilogy, #2)

Kim Stanley Robinson

4.0
In the Nebula Award winning Red Mars, Kim Stanley Robinson began his critically acclaimed epic saga of the colonization of Mars, Now the Hugo Award winning Green Mars continues the thrilling and timeless tale of humanity's struggle to survive at its farthest frontier.

Nearly a generation has passed since the first pioneers landed, but the transformation of Mars to an Earthlike planet has just begun
97

Radical Evolution: The Promise and Peril of Enhancing Our Minds, Our Bodies -- and What It Means to Be Human

Joel Garreau

4.0
Taking us behind the scenes with today's foremost researchers and pioneers, Garreau reveals that the super powers of our comic-book heroes already exist, or are in development in hospitals, labs, and research facilities around the country -- from the revved up reflexes and speed of Spider-Man and Superman, to the enhanced mental acuity and memory capabilities of an advanced species.

In Radical Evol
98

Mindf*ck: Cambridge Analytica and the Plot to Break America

Christopher Wylie

4.0
For the first time, the Cambridge Analytica whistleblower tells the inside story of the data mining and psychological manipulation behind the election of Donald Trump and the Brexit referendum, connecting Facebook, WikiLeaks, Russian intelligence, and international hackers.

Mindf*ck goes deep inside Cambridge Analytica's "American operations," which were driven by Steve Bannon's vision to remake Am
The Fourth Industrial Revolution book cover99

The Fourth Industrial Revolution

Klaus Schwab

4.0
World-renowned economist Klaus Schwab, Founder and Executive Chairman of the World Economic Forum, explains that we have an opportunity to shape the fourth industrial revolu-tion, which will fundamentally alter how we live and work.

Schwab argues that this revolution is different in scale, scope and complexity from any that have come before. Characterized by a range of new technologies that are f
100

The Clock Of The Long Now: Time And Responsibility

Stewart Brand

4.0
Using the designing and building of the Clock of the Long Now as a framework, this is a book about the practical use of long time perspective: how to get it, how to use it, how to keep it in and out of sight. Here are the central questions it inspires: How do we make long-term thinking automatic and common instead of difficult and rare? Discipline in thought allows freedom. One needs the space and