Living in the future

What sort of world will our children grow up in? In a time of accelerating change we want and need signposts. Past predictions of doom have so far proved false. The world has not yet ended and 1984 was a far cry from the nightmare imagined by Orwell. But the potential for disaster is still with us.

We are in the midst of an 'information revolution' whose impact has been compared with the upheaval of the Industrial Revolution. that has provided the technological bases for surveillance and repression on a near-Orwellian scale. And that revolution is far from complete. Can these vast new controlling powers be harnessed as a force for good rather than evil?

Quite apart from the threat to our individual liberties, our very survival as a species may be at risk - from the ever present danger of nuclear war, and in the long term com the ecological damage being done to our planet. Will things be different in the year 2000? Or shall we continue down the same self-destructive road, turning forests into deserts, polluting rivers and oceans, and destroying the ozone layer that shields us from the sun's radiation?

What of the countries afflicted by starvation and disease? Will their prospects improve or will the gulf between the haves and the have-nots grow even wider? And what of the political conflict between East and West- the backdrop against which so many Third World human tragedies take place? How will things turn out, and what, if anything, can be done to curb undesirable trends or to prevent major catastrophes from overtaking the human race?

Living in the Future tackles these different but related issues head-on. Written in straightforward layman's language, it takes a penetrating look at our future prospects ranging from the global and political, through the effects of science and technology on our social and economic structures, to the implications for every individual - basing its conclusions on sound scientific and practical evidence. Copious illustrations reveal the sur prising nature of the changes taking place, both at large and in the lifestyles of ordinary people. We see the forms of transport which may be used to overcome the energy crisis, the trend in medicine towards prevention rather than cure, and the changing roles of men and women and, indeed, of the whole family. Devised by Peter Nicholls.