A Good Read: Recommended books about Futures & Foresight (2025 update)
Looking for a good book about futures and foresight to expand your knowledge, build skills, or introduce you to speculative fiction set in possible futures? Below are some of Suzanne’s favourite non-fiction and fiction choices to get you started (updated 2025)
Non-Fiction
Foundations and Introductory Works
- Futuring: The Exploration of the Future – Edward Cornish, 2003
A journalistic overview of futures studies by the founder of the World Future Society, updating his classic Study of the Future. - Introduction to Foresight (Foresight Guide Book 1) – John Smart, 2021
A comprehensive, reference-style guide packed with insights into the contemporary practice of foresight. - Foundations of Futures Studies: Human Science for a New Era (Vol. 1) – Wendell Bell, 1996
A scholarly and systematic introduction to the foundations and purposes of futures studies. - Thinking about the Future: Guidelines for Strategic Foresight – Andy Hines & Peter Bishop, 2015
A practical handbook that lays out core concepts and steps for engaging in strategic foresight work. - Imaginable: How to See the Future Coming and Feel Ready for Anything – Jane McGonigal, 2022
A highly accessible and hopeful guide to building resilience through imagination and scenario thinking. - Future Shock – Alvin Toffler, 1970 (Also cited as 1984 in some editions)
A powerful analysis of the overwhelming pace of change and its psychological effects on society. - The Art of Conjecture – Bertrand de Jouvenel, 1967
A philosophical exploration of how envisioning possible futures can guide present decisions. - The Image of the Future – Fred Polak, 1973
A foundational study on how societies’ images of the future shape their evolution and success.
Technology and Artificial Intelligence
- The Singularity Is Near: When Humans Transcend Biology – Ray Kurzweil, 2005
Predicts a technological “singularity” where AI, genetics, and nanotech reshape human life. - Superintelligence: Paths, Dangers, Strategies – Nick Bostrom, 2014
A rigorous exploration of how superhuman AI could emerge and what risks it may pose. - Life 3.0: Being Human in the Age of Artificial Intelligence – Max Tegmark, 2017
Discusses scenarios where AI development profoundly transforms humanity. - The Second Machine Age – Erik Brynjolfsson & Andrew McAfee, 2014
Explores how digital technologies are driving profound changes in the economy and society. - AI 2041: Ten Visions for Our Future – Kai-Fu Lee & Chen Qiufan, 2021
Combines fiction and analysis to present ten plausible futures shaped by AI. - The Culture Series – Iain M. Banks, 1987–2012
A speculative series about a post-scarcity society run by benevolent AI, rich in ethical and political insight.
Society, Ethics, and Economics
- Homo Deus: A Brief History of Tomorrow – Yuval Noah Harari, 2016
Considers the future of humanity in light of biotech, AI, and the quest for godlike powers. - What We Owe The Future – William MacAskill, 2022
Makes the case for “longtermism”—prioritizing actions that benefit distant future generations. - Future Ethics – Cennydd Bowles, 2018
Examines the ethical dilemmas emerging from rapidly evolving technologies. - Future Politics: Living Together in a World Transformed by Tech – Jamie Susskind, 2018
Investigates how digital technologies will reshape political power, freedom, and justice. - The Age of Surveillance Capitalism – Shoshana Zuboff, 2019
Reveals how big tech exploits data for profit and what that means for democracy and autonomy. - Capital in the Twenty-First Century – Thomas Piketty, 2014
Argues that unchecked capitalism naturally leads to growing inequality unless restructured. - 2025: Imagining After Capitalism – Andy Hines, 2025
Synthesizes three alternative post-capitalist scenarios using foresight methodology.
Methods and Applications
- The Art of the Long View: Planning for the Future in an Uncertain World – Peter Schwartz, 1996
A business-oriented classic on scenario planning and its strategic use. - Questioning the Future: Methods and Tools for Organizational and Societal Transformation – Sohail Inayatullah, 2005
A combination of foresight theory and practical methods for driving transformation. - How to Future: Leading and Sense-Making in an Age of Hyperchange – Scott Smith & Madeline Ashby, 2020
A toolkit for applying foresight in rapidly changing, real-world contexts. - Facing Our Futures: How Foresight, Futures Design and Strategy Creates Prosperity and Growth – Nikolas Badminton, 2023
An energizing guide to foresight practices for innovation and leadership in organizations. - The Signals Are Talking: Why Today’s Fringe is Tomorrow’s Mainstream – Amy Webb, 2016
Offers techniques for spotting early signals of change and anticipating emerging trends. - Spiral Dynamics: Mastering Values, Leadership, and Change – Don Beck & Christopher Cowan, 1996
Explores evolving human value systems as a guide to understanding individual and societal development.
Environment and Sustainability
- The Limits to Growth – Donella Meadows, Dennis Meadows, Jørgen Randers, 1972
A pioneering study warning that exponential growth will outstrip Earth’s capacity. - The Uninhabitable Earth – David Wallace-Wells, 2019
A harrowing look at the near-term consequences of unchecked climate change. - The Future We Choose – Christiana Figueres & Tom Rivett-Carnac, 2020
A passionate call to climate action by two of the Paris Agreement’s architects. - Drawdown – Edited by Paul Hawken, 2017
A solutions-based book offering 100 ways to reduce emissions and reverse global warming. - Earth for All: A Survival Guide for Humanity – Sandrine Dixson-Declève et al., 2022
Presents scenario-based policies to build a fairer and more sustainable future by 2050.
Compilations
- The Knowledge Base of Futures Studies 2020 – Edited by Richard Slaughter & Andy Hines, 2020
A curated anthology showcasing essential writings and tools from across the futures field.
Fiction
Classics & Dystopias
-
Nineteen Eighty-Four – George Orwell, 1949
A chilling portrayal of totalitarianism, surveillance, and the loss of truth. -
Brave New World – Aldous Huxley, 1932
A vision of a controlled, pleasure-driven society built on genetic engineering and conformity. -
Fahrenheit 451 – Ray Bradbury, 1953
In a future where books are outlawed, firemen burn them to suppress dissent and critical thought. -
The Handmaid’s Tale – Margaret Atwood, 1985
A dystopian regime strips women of rights and autonomy in a near-future theocracy.
Tech & Post-Capitalism
- Neuromancer – William Gibson, 1984
A noir cyberpunk thriller that coined “cyberspace” and envisioned the digital matrix decades ahead of its time. - Red Mars – Kim Stanley Robinson, 1993
Explores the political, ecological, and human dimensions of colonizing Mars. - Walkaway – Cory Doctorow, 2017
A provocative tale of people who abandon capitalism to build a post-scarcity society in the ruins.
Science, Society & Space
- Foundation – Isaac Asimov, 1951
Chronicles a mathematician’s plan to shorten a dark age through predictive science and a knowledge-preserving Foundation. - Dune – Frank Herbert, 1965
A sprawling space epic that interweaves politics, religion, and ecology on the desert planet Arrakis. - The Dispossessed – Ursula K. Le Guin, 1974
A physicist’s journey between two worlds explores anarchism, capitalism, and utopian ideals. - Parable of the Sower – Octavia E. Butler, 1993
A young visionary founds a new belief system amid the collapse of American society due to climate and economic crisis. - The Ministry for the Future – Kim Stanley Robinson, 2020
Follows an international organization tasked with climate intervention in a brutally realistic near-future Earth.
Curious? Want to know more?
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