The Future File: A guide for people with one foot in the 21st century

RAND researchers and graduate students alike are burning up computer time in the process of mapping out possible futures for the economy, demography, personal lifestyles, and just about everything else. Cashing in on the boom, Dickson, a writer with an abiding interest in the latest gadgets, has attempted to pull together all of this activity; listing organizations (like Earthrise, and Committee for the Future), periodicals (Footnotes to the Future, Technological Forecasting and Social Change), and books concerned with such projects, and providing some sample future prospects. Thought-provoking and informative, Dickson's book should encourage readers to become realistic futurists.”—Publisher’s Weekly "This has everything one expects from a good read: adventure (scenarios of the possible), pathos (worst predictions ever made), heroes (directory of futurist organizations), plot (year-by-year history of the future), and all those little insiders' details that bring the subject alive (a glossary of future terms that can teach you to talk like a futurist). The book not only tells who is busy looking at the future, but why and, more important, how. And for when you get ready to start focusing on the future yourself, its almanac and directory will point you to films, magazines, and groups for you to join."—The Washington Post.