Speculative Fiction, Philosophy, Memoir
plus Essays, Movies and Shows About the Future of Technology and Science
The Future Today Institute’s Recommended Reading & Watching List For Fall 2017

To map the future, you must start by looking for the present-day fringe. It’s in the fringe where creative thinkers develop innovative ideas that aren’t shackled by research grants or other constraints which would cause them to edit themselves. Much of the fringe is about being in a space where few operate, in order to experiment and allow the mind to wander productively. Finding the fringe is the first step in futures forecasting.

If you want to understand the future, read science and speculative fiction, as well as philosophy, memoir and essays on the implications of technology. The Future Today Institute curates seasonal lists based on current events and emerging trends. Below is our Fall 2017 list of recommended reading and watching. You’ll find familiar titles as well as new works.

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Books We’re Reading

Noumenon by Marina J. Lostetter

The Signals Are Talking by Amy Webb

The Rise and Fall of D.O.D.O. by Neal Stephenson and Nicole Galland

Amatka by Karin Tidbeck

Dear CEO: 50 Personal Letters from the World’s Leading Business Thinkers by Thinkers50

Binti by Nnedi Okorafor

The Accusation: Forbidden Stories From Inside North Korea by Bandi

Without You, There Is No Us by Suki Kim

Maus by Art Spiegelman

The Fifth Season by NK Jemisin

My Rad Life: A Journal by Kate Schatz and Miriam Klein Stahl

Debriefing by Susan Sontag

Brave New World by Aldous Huxley

Thinking In Systems: A Primer by Donella Meadow

The Master Switch by Tim Wu

Onlyness by Nilofer Merchant

Future Shock by Alvin Toffler

A Mind at Play: How Claude Shannon Invented the Information Age by Rob Goodman and Jimmy Soni

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Essays We’re Reading

What Are the Ethical Consequences of Immortality Technology by Francesca Minerva and Adrian Rorheim

The Herd Instinct by Sigmund Freud

Skynet began destroying humanity 20 years ago today. It shares a disturbing number of qualities with Trump by Amy Webb

We need to shift the conversation around AI before Elon Musk dooms us all by Chad Steelbert

Is a Cambrian Explosion Coming For Robotics by Gill A. Pratt

A 19th Century Vision For The Year 2000 from various artists in France

A Proposal For The Darmouth Summer Research Project on Artificial Intelligence by J. McCarthy, Dartmouth College; M. L. Minsky, Harvard University; N. Rochester, I.B.M. Corporation; C.E. Shannon, Bell Telephone Laboratories

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Shows and Movies We’re Watching

Dr. Strangelove – rewatch it, if you saw it long ago

Black Mirror – the new season is out this fall (Netflix)

Westworld – worth revisiting within the context of current AI debates (HBO)

Ascension (Netflix)

Electric Dreams (Channel 4 in the UK – try Amazon if you’re elsewhere)

Metropolis – the original version from 1927

World of Tomorrow (Netflix)