This book was a quick, interesting read. Eerily, one event described in the book just came true -- a guy on the east coast storing gas for Y2K blew himself up. Let's hope the events in Chapter 10 don't come true in a couple of weeks.

This book poses important questions concerning the intersection of business and government in America, but does it in a thoroughly entertaining way.

This book is difficult reading, but this is NOT due to challenging material or scholarly finessing. There is no liquid ingredient in this dry mix. The author's style has a barreness, lacking any fluidity, profundity or depth. . . a bit like sitting through a company meeting on inventory and distribution (or some other banal task), complete with charts and graphs. Perhaps the author finds legitimacy and comfort in the data charade, but don't be fooled. There are no intuitive leaps or original creative thoughts in these pages that might weave the complex interrelationships of current events and trends into a potently abstract future. The author's attempts to instruct his readers in the fine points of interpreting and preparing for "wild card" events is far from wild and is, rather, highly predictable. Instead, his extrapolations are exercises in linear thinking that any avid reader of popular science and technology magazines could surmise. The book's style and layout seems choppy and disjointed with the annoying visual interruption of multiple "boxes" on the pages which serve neither to emphasize important material in the main text or elaborate on same. They appear to be more like attention grabbing "sound bites" that contrive to superficially keep the reader engaged. While this style may be appropriate for slideshow presentations, it is gimmicky in the context of a book. The author seems to lack the confidence in the text's ability to engage and stimulate, which is not unfounded. The author provides a number of uninspired wild card scenarios but lacks any comprehensive and cohesive vision of their impact. This faceless and disembodied grouping of scenarios leaves the chore of putting this jigsaw puzzle together to the reader without a picture guide. How does it all fit together? Life is wild, and we'll never tame it. This is what makes life interesting. Our own creativity is born in our responsiveness and connection to this natural, unpredic! table and multidimensional realm. And THAT's all she wrote.

An extraordinary view into a number of worlds. Clearly, Petersen is one of the best-informed Futurists in the world. He is a true "out of the box thinker." He reports on the most important break throughs in technology, business, science and space---and the critical breakdowns in human and environmental health; and in social, political and economic conditions. Most importantly, Petersen offers one of the most well-informed reports on the emerging realities that will redefine every aspect of our careers and personal lives---sooner than we might think.