Customer Reviews

Futurehype: The Tyranny of Prophecy (Plume)

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

There wouldn't be much of a problem with Futurism if it was innocuous enough of a field (that is, one without much power) to allow it to go largely uninvestigated. There have been hundreds of books that indulge in Futurology but it is nigh impossible to unearth a book that looks at the topic and it's methodologies with a critical eye or, for that matter, any level of skepticism. But Mr. Dublin succeeds very admirably at the job, intelligently analysing the spectrum of problems that are part and parcel of Futurology as its used in our society, infused into journalism and advertising and culture.

So, it is precisely because people put too much stock in prophecy that this book is of transcendent importance (science being only one of the areas the author looks into. It is far from being a condemnation of our dreamers; its a book that shines the spotlight on an area that has had a very shadowy existence with almost no critics. Find a copy of this book and educate yourself about a tool that has been used extensively (recently in the high tech field, such as Wired, etc) to influence our mental environment and augment industry PR.

OK, it's true: people do put too much stock in prophecy, especially when it's made by the scientific community. But Max Dublin's relentless attack on just about every aspect of "futurology" is a little too depressing for my tastes. So Buckminster Fuller's inventions won't change the world - isn't there room for dreamers in our society?

The solution, perhaps, lies somewere between what Dublin says andhow things are: we need people prepared to guess at what the future might be like and how it could be better than today, but we also need to recognise that everything these people say is just an educated guess, at best, and not a foregone conclusion.

At any rate, the writing is tight and the argument is certainly worth a look, but you might find the leaden tone a little offputting.