The Long Boom: A Future History of the World, 1980-2020

by PeterSchwartz (Author), PeterLeyden (Author), JoelHyatt (Author)

• Used

  Paperback
  2000

  $3.26

  The authors begin at what they see as the birth of modern technology - 1980 - and chart the story of the furture through to 2020 in a captivating narrative format, inter-linked with material from a documentary produced in the year 2050 and a series of letters from a fictional character written in ten-year intervals beginning in 1980. The authors see the long boom as a period of sustained growth that could eventually double the world's economy every dozen years and bring increasing properity to billions of people on the planet. Today we are riding the early waves of this expanding economy that in time could do much to solve many of the intractable global problems, such as poverty and ease tension throughout the world. This, according to the authors, is the possibility. But it is not inevitable. We sill all have to make the choice to go for growth. 'The Long Boom' is an incredibly powerful vision of the future. It is radical, optomistic and captivating. It cannot be ignored.

• Used

  Hardcover
  1999

  $17.33

  As we stand at the threshold of the new millennium, the future seems both exhilarating and terrifying. Does it hold great promise of freedom and opportunity or the threat of conflict and inequality? In the tradition of such influential and defining books as Future Shock and Megatrends, Peter Schwartz, Peter Leyden, and Joel Hyatt argue in The Long Boom that we are, in fact, on the verge of a global economic expansion on a scale never before experienced--and that the choices we make as informed individuals, institutions, communities, and nations today will determine whether that vision is realized. Analyzing economic, political, technological and socio-cultural trends that began to converge in the early 1980s, the authors offer a compelling--and highly plausible--vision of how the next twenty years will unfold. By 2020, we can expect to experience tremendous advances in now-emerging technologies; widespread adoption of alternative energy sources; increased productivity; and, perhaps most important, the creation of a truly global economy. Going beyond a description of this scenario, the authors identify potential bumps in the road and urge educators, policy makers, business leaders, social activists, and individuals in all types of organizations to participate in the politics of the long boom, the realm where people come together to pool resources and solve common problems. Grand in scope but intensely personal in scale, The Long Boom shows us all how to take an active role in creating a vibrant, diverse, constantly learning, and sustainable global society.