Coates is a regular feature at World Future Society conferences. Last year I heard him give an 8-part lecture series last year on scenarios of life and business in 2025, and later bought the cassette series.
Now he and his colleagues have brought out the book on the subject. It taps the worlds of science, technology, and engineering to look at the thirty year period of 1995 to 2025. Written in the form of a history book in 2025, Coates gives fifteen scenarios which reflect what life will be like in the United States as well as other societies (both affluent and less prosperous).
* Smart Living / house and home of the future * Information: The Global Commodity / integration of telecommunications * Harvesting the Fruit of Genetics / biotechnology * Powering Three Worlds /energy technology and efficiency * The World of Things/ materials technology * Working Toward a Sustainable World /environmental strategies and tools * Managing the Planet/ macroengineering the environment * Putting Space to Work /cooperation and commercialization of space * Our Built World/ infrastructure and construction * People and Things on the Move / transportation * The World of Production / custom manufacturing * A Quest for Variety and Sufficiency / food and agriculture * Striving for Good Health / disease prevention and life enhancement * Our Days and Our Lives / quality of life movement * Balancing Work and Leisure / lifestyle and entertainment
One added feature to *2025* is that at the end of each chapter, Coates lists the "Critical Developments, 1990-2025," plus the "Unrealized Hopes and Fears" of each field he covers.
*2025* is the best information rich and researched mid-range scenario for the future I have read. It also is enjoyable reading. I have sharing bits and pieces with my son ! and daughter who will be 41 and 39 in the year 2025. They get a kick out of hearing about computer "knowbots," toys made with "smart materials," or machine "language coaches." But *2025* is far deeper than just a preview of future gadgets.
This book could be a veritable field guide to your next 30 years, especially if you are in business, an entrepreneur, a person responsible for planning, or engaged in scientific and technical issues.
I am using it right now as a help in writing radio commercials which illustrate futures thinking for upcoming millennial celebrations.
1.Logical order The order to display the topics in this book is logical and consistent. This is important for self-study users. At the beginning of each chapter, there's always a paragraph or two summarize the main points that are going to present in the chapter. This gives the reader a whole picture.
2. Clear explanation and examples The book uses easy explanatory languages and the examples are very representative. Each example, the author is showing us every detail steps, so it is easy to follow.
3.Relevant exercises and problems. At the end of each chapter, there are questions that can help to reinforce the concepts. Most questions can be found directly from the material. There are also exercises and problems that are related to the topic presented in the chapter. I remember there is an accounting book I used before that the problems required more knowledge than the chapter actually covered. This not the case in this book. Some of the examples in the chapter could be used as quick reference while working on the problems, too.
The only thing I would recommend, if I need to find some, is that I hope there could be more real life issues mentioned in the book. In this way, readers can relate the knowledge to daily life even closer.
Now all this time'early 40's'the Brits had been warning KING about the present position and anticipated arrival of every German submarine sent across the Atlantic to attack our Eastern ports, but the number one SOB on our side (and an American) refused to ever listen to the Brits due to a pathological craziness that negatively focused on the Brits. Instead he did the opposite. The ports were left unguarded. The German wolf packs roamed just a few miles off our Eastern seashore at will and thousands of men died needlessly! Why this one salient point wasn't a large focal point of this book is beyond me.
As bald as King's purposeful negligence seems today I must admit that everyone wants to read about a leader who is also a buffoon. Madness and stupidity offer great areas of comedic relief even in pointless deadly battles. A glimpse at some of the most fatal but stupid and uninspired Anglo-Saxon battle plans'"over the top boys!"'of the 2nd World War will convence anyone of this! That's why this book isn't selling but would be selling 2000 copies a month right now had the authors and the U.S. Navy relentlessly searched for the truth and then after finding it wrote is all down exactly as it happened. But the U.S. Navy was then a boatload of WASPS in search of a great U.S. Naval leader and Mad Admiral King looked just like a leader with his clean face and pretty white hair. In their egoistic ways and means, the writers tried to place King anywhere but where he belongs: in a yellow submarine. Instead, King's long and costly road to victory was too grevious for everyone in the end and so no foolish writer wanted to spend time researching him when his record spoke for itself.
Mad Admiral King's true plan for the Pacific war was to island-hop for another three years, to have the war end in 1948. His dwarf like mind conceived the worst and possibly malignant war plans when he purposefully ordered Iwo Jima to be invaded. This latter plan of death and dying caused even the most cynical American Admiral-to-be to suggest that island hoping was a bad idea. Bypass the remaining islands and bomb Japan back into the stone age with incendiaries. The deaths of the truly great fighting men at Iwo Jima were placed there by King and ordered to take the island at allcosts. This is not insightfully addressed in the book on King because it's just more proof of King's pathological arrogance and conceit.
The details about Pershing's early life are a little sketchy. As the story moves along, Smith includes more and more info (presumably because more source material exists). I never got a sense of what Pershing's life was like growing up, but I got a lot (bordering on too much) about his relationship with his son and sisters.
I wholeheartedly disagree with the very negative review below. This book stays VERY focused on Pershing and, in my opinion, does not give too much detail about other people involved in the story. And, while Pershing may not have been as colorful (or as politically active) as Grant, MacArthur, Eisenhower, etc., he sure as heck earned six stars (which he never wore). With very little support from home, and against a great deal of pressure from the French and British, he trained and formed a US Army out of practically nothing, beat the Germans (don't argue that the French and British could have done it alone), and was the ONLY major voice calling for Germany's unconditional surrender (would WWII have happened if Wilson & the others had listened?).
The greatness of Pershing's acheivement comes through clearly in Smith's book. Sometimes, it's a little harder to get a feel for the greatness of the man.
Also, he tries to be funny, but fails. You have to read through tons of stupid stuff to get to anything of relevance. And you can't skip over it either, or you'll miss the tiny morsel of important information that he put in among his meaningless drivel. This book truly needs a good editor.
I was also very disappointed to find that there is no accompanying CD-ROM or website to go along with the tutorials. For each new sample database or table, the reader has to build the framework by hand before being able to work along with the examples in the book. This is made virtually impossible by glaring omissions in the book--whole tables are added and filled in without any notice or explanation, leaving you to scratch your head and wonder "where did THAT come from?" In many cases I resorted to filling in as much data as I could based on close examination of the screen shots!
Finally, although the book discusses a great deal of Access arcana in passing, it has very little depth, and virtually no discussion of what goes into the design of a quality database. You can use Access by the end (if you are persistent) but your design is sure to be weak...
(My apologies to the authors... I just call it like I see it.)