Future Files: A History of the Next 50 Years (Richard Watson, Scribe, $32.95 tpb, ISBN 9781921215414, September) ***

This is the world according to Richard Watson: it’s the year 2050, cyber terrorism is a serious threat, there is no oil and the economy is akin to the 1930s depression era. We will be more connected to the wider world through a mind-blowing increase in technology, but more isolated in our personal lives. In an attempt to escape the grim realities of everyday life we will take virtual holidays, paid for in virtual dollars, with our virtual lovers. Watson combines history with current political, cultural and social trends to forecast the next 50 years. Examining everything from war to the way we brush our teeth, the book, which at times reads like a little more than a long list, is fascinating, frightening and strange—mindwipes and skyshields? Written to be used by business analysts, it could also make for some
interesting dinner party conversation. However, controversial chapters such as ‘Why the world does not need saving’, could turn the most convivial soirée into an all-out brawl. So how will people respond to so much change? As Watson points out ‘Technology changes fast and exponentially, while people change slowly and incrementally.’ That means a return to spirituality, philosophy and bread baking. Phew!

Esther Van Doornum is a freelance writer and works as a bookseller at Readings in Carlton

This review from Australian Bookseller & Publisher magazine is reproduced by kind permission of Thorpe-Bowker, a division of R R Bowker LLC. © Copyright 2007, Thorpe-Bowker