The first book in the Fast Future series, Beyond Genuine Stupidity: Ensuring AI Serves Humanity, explores critical emerging issues arising from the rapid pace of development in artificial intelligence (AI). The authors argue for a forward-looking and conscious approach to the development and deployment of AI to ensure that it genuinely serves humanity's best interest. Through a series of articles, they present a compelling case to get beyond the genuine stupidity of narrow, short-term and alarmist thinking and look at AI from a long-term holistic perspective. The reality is that AI will impact current sectors and jobs—and hopefully enable new ones. A smart approach requires us to think about and experiment with strategies for adopting and absorbing the impacts of AI—encompassing education systems, reskilling the workforce, unemployment and guaranteed basic incomes, robot taxes, job creation, encouraging new ventures, research and development to enable tomorrow's industries, and dealing with the mental health impacts. The book explores the potential impacts on sectors ranging from healthcare and automotive to legal and education. The implications for business itself are also examined from leadership and HR to sales and business ethics.

A Very Human Future is written from the premise that the pace of penetration and scale of disruption of new technologies requires us to adopt a new all-encompassing protective logic for society moving forward. Enriching Humanity in a Digitized World means placing humanity at the center of the agenda so that we avoid dehumanizing ourselves and future generations. As society enters the fourth industrial revolution, a major question arises—can we harness intense technological bursts of possibility to bring about a better world? A Very Human Future illustrates how the evolution of society, cities, people, businesses, industries, nations, and governments are being unexpectedly entangled by exponential technological disruption. This is not a book about technology but an exploration of how we make it serve humanity’s highest needs and ambitions. Each chapter looks at how new ideas enabled by emerging technologies are straining the old social fabric, and proposes radical future scenarios, strategies, and actions to safeguard humanity from harm and enhance opportunity for all. This book is a manifesto for a future that is better than the past. A Very Human Future rejects an outlook where human beings live a mundane existence while technologies burst with possibility. Rather, we use this book to endorse a proactive approach to the future where technology is designed to benefit humanity purposefully and intentionally. To advocate for A Very Human Future we ask, for example, how do we use technology to overcome gender bias or to impart a meaningful education to new generations? Can artificial intelligence tools make government more trustworthy and help us deal with the impacts of automation replacing humans? What rights should people have when residing in smart cities? The scale of the new technologies requires a protective logic for moving forward, keeping humanity at the centre so that we avoid dehumanizing ourselves and future generations. A Very Human Future is not one, but many: positive stories and visions of the future can be powerful beacons for social adaptation. We argue that the time to control the narrative of the future and stake a claim for humanity is now. A Very Human Future uses knowledge as power, describing surprising ways new thinking and disruptive technology can impact society. This book explains that protecting what’s human is the key to retaining our dominance over future technological progress.

The second book in the Fast Future series, The Future Reinvented, explores how our notions of the future are themselves being reinvented. The authors challenge us to reimagine how life, society, key industries, and the conduct of business could be transformed by a combination of radical technological, scientific, social, and economic developments shaping the decade ahead. The Future Reinvented offers unique snapshots of different aspects of a future in which the very tenets of reality are undergoing deep and vital transformations. The book is organized into three sections covering transformations in life and society, industries, and business, and presents holistic future scenarios that encourage strategic thinking about what lies beyond the hype.

There is a lot of stupid research out there. And many stupid questions remain. This book surveys, then builds upon the work of Cipolla, Dunning, Kruger, Peter, Murphy, and other luminous minds to explore the fascinating behaviors of Stupidity, Idiocy and Foolishness...and in doing so discovers the dangerous Villains who would make fools of us all, and a tenuous hope for our own Heroism. Would such heroism be brave ... or stupid? The easy and fun way in which this book simplifies mathematically challenging concepts lets you explore the latest advances of qualitative reasoning and computer science to see those seeds of common sense currently being planted in artificial intelligence, and glimpse an end to stupidity. Don't merely marvel at morons: easy-to-use detection systems are included in these pages to accurately measure the stupidity surrounding yourself at home and work - and prepare you to not only predict this dangerous phenomenon, but prevent it as well! CONTENTS: Introduction: the Village Idiot Mathematically Defining, Scientifically Observing and Methodologically Analyzing Idiocy, Stupidity and Foolishness Definitions and Observational Methodology Axiomatic Definition of Stupidity FIGURE 1: HUMAN STUPIDITY Axiomatic Definition of Idiocy FIGURE 2: HUMAN IDIOCY FIGURE 3: MORONIC FOOLISHNESS Axiomatic Definition of a Moron or Fool Making Fools out of Intelligent People Quantifying Measurements of Stupidity, Idiocy and Foolishness Quantifying Stupidity, Idiocy and Foolishness Relative Measurements and Objectivity Why Objectivity is a Cause for Intelligence, Implications Measurement of Ignorance is Always Subjective Systemic Measurements Stupid Assumptions Idiotic and Foolish Assumptions Foolproofing: the Game of Idiots Applications of Game Theory Logical Fallacy of the Premise of Free Choice Foolishness is Sometimes Unavoidable and Maliciously Inflicted Methods of Inducing Stupidity Intelligence is Also Sometimes Unavoidable and May Be Bestowed The Game of Idiots: Foolproofing Fallacy that "A Fool and His Money are Soon Parted" Fools are Not Nor Do They Become Resource-Poor Relevance of Overplacement and Overestimation Bias to the Cause and Nature of Stupidity Bias of Overplacement and Overestimation: the Dunning-Kruger Effect Bias is Inevitable Due to the Way Competence is Obtained A Measure of Competence: toward Quantitative Reasoning and Common Sense through Metacognition Murphy's Law and the Persistence of Fools The Peter Principle and the Logic of Despair Qualitative Reasoning as a Consequence of Metacognition Magnitude of the Dunning-Kruger effect is variable Fallacy of Quantitative Reasoning Qualitative Reasoning, or "Common Sense" Hanlon's Razor Quality Control Glimpses of Evil Villainy FIGURE 4: INCREASING COSTS OF VILLAINY OVER TIME Axiomatic Definition of Villainy The Intelligent Villain Functional Sickness Why "Do No Harm?" Progression and Regression of Villainy Losing and Gaining Trust Preventing Attacks of Villains and Bandits Disguised as Fools Weaponized Incompetence Sabotage Hate Crimes versus Terrorism: True Villainy Heroes: Brave, or Stupid? Conclusion - The Fool's Journey: Ending Human Stupidity Designing Defensive Systems Against Stupidity and Villainy A New Management System Profound Knowledge The Limit of Foolishness Suggested Further Reading and Bibliography

This book approaches environmentalism via two academic disciplines, sociology and philosophy. Both have concerns about the environment's ability not only to sustain itself but to thrive. The authors argue that rather than simple sustainability, we must promote thrivability for the sake of protecting the environment and all living things. In this greatly expanded second edition, the authors have updated data and examples, introduced new topics and concepts, and emphasized the need to lessen our dependence on fossil fuels. Numerous topics are explored, from the differences between sustainability and thrivability, and the overuse of plastic, to mass extinction, the role of natural disasters and more. The Covid-19 pandemic offers an added perspective on the relationship between disease and the environment.

Historian Gary Lachman delivers a fascinating, rollicking biography of literary and cultural rebel Colin Wilson, one of the most adventurous, hopeful, and least understood intellects of the past century. You will embark on the intellectual ride of a lifetime in this rediscovery of the life and work of writer, rebel, and social experimenter Colin Wilson (1931-2013). Author of the classic The Outsider, Wilson, across his 118 books, purveyed a philosophy of mind power and human potential that made him one of the least understood and most important voices of the twentieth century. Wilson helped usher in the cultural revolution of the 1960s with his landmark work, The Outsider, published in 1956. The Outsider was an intelligent, meticulous, and unprecedented study of nonconformity in all facets of life. Wilson, finally, became a prolific and unparalleled historian of the occult, providing a generation of readers with a responsible and scholarly entry point to a world of mysteries. Now, acclaimed historian Gary Lachman, a friend of Wilson and a scholar of his work, provides an extraordinary and delightful biography that delves into the life, thought, and evolution of one of the greatest intellectual rebels and underrated visionaries of the twentieth century.

This book presents a counter-trend against nationalism, religious extremism, xenophobia, and racism. It advocates an alternative globalization based not on trade, the economy, and politics, but on humanity’s transcendence to a collective consciousness. Inspired by a pantheist worldview, it applies an integral perspective toward strategic foresight and anticipation on the planetary scale. Controversial, disappearing, and emerging binary oppositions are explained within the framework of the mythology of the Lord of Wisdom versus the Ignorant Mind. It shows that our anticipatory planetary era might be characterized by the acknowledgement of our “zero knowledge”, as measured in the ocean of all disciplines; zero carbon for energy; zero war in politics and zero killing in society; zero conscious beings excluded; and zero existence (as we have known it), as humanity merges into some higher and enriched complexity.