Future Rising

A Journey from the Past to the Edge of Tomorrow

A Compelling Vision of the Future

Human beings can—and do—change the future. Over the course of the past 14 billion years, humanity has gained the ability not only to imagine the future, but to design and engineer it. At times entertaining and at others profound, Future Rising by Dr. Andrew Maynard, professor in the School for the Future of Innovation in Society at ASU, provides a highly original perspective on our relationship with the future.

We have a responsibility to change the future for the better. As a species, we have become profoundly talented architects of our own future. And yet, we so often struggle to come to terms with what this means and the responsibility that comes with this ability. As our world is driven along by the breakneck speed of innovation and rapidly-shifting norms and expectations, we sometimes need to find a still, quiet place to pause and think. Future Rising sets out to create such a quiet place, where we can take advantage of our species’ knowledge of the environment, world history, and the importance of science to piece together a positive picture of the future.

To create a good future, rediscover the past. Our relationship with the future is inextricably intertwined with where we’ve come from, who we are, and what we aspire to. Written to be easy to pick up and hard to put down, Future Rising starts at the beginning of all things with the Big Bang and traces a pathway along the emergence of intelligent life, through what makes humans uniquely capable of imagining and creating different futures, to the profound responsibilities that this comes with.

In a series of sixty short reflections, Future Rising will take you on an often-startling journey into: