The Meaning of the 21st Century: A Vital Blueprint for Ensuring Our Future

by James Martin

Book Overview

According to James Martin-known as "the guru of the Information Age"-humanity is at a crucial turning point. If we succeed in finding ways to support massive gains in population combined with dizzying... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1573223239
• ISBN13: 9781573223232
• Release Date: August 2006
• Publisher: Riverhead Books
• Length: 431 Pages
• Weight: 0.85 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.4" x 6.4" x 9.3"
• Age Range: 18 years and up
• Grade Range: Postsecondary and higher

Customer Reviews

Roughly and helpfully right

This book is one of the most interesting and I dare say, important in my library. Read the other reviews for critiques of where he might be 'precisely wrong' in parts of his argument. But for all that he is, in my mind, roughly right nonetheless. In other words I think this is a book that has made an excellent interpretation of complex trends, explains and illustrates them helpfully, and has made a good contribution to human thought and, I hope, wellbeing. He sees the wood, and the trees (maybe misses and misconstrues a couple of trees at least) - I would advise anyone to buy this and engage with his thinking.

Sensible and to the point (except for the sci-fi projections) a realistic call to action.

A down-to-earth book that tells people what really matters. Be religious if you need to, be spiritual if you want, but what really matters are the actions of your day-to-day and the big picture view of the problems. They are many, but we are not seeing them and, worse yet, not acting on them. A must to educate people on the few things that can make life on earth miserable. The author deserves every accolade.

For all those who care about the human future- an extremely important book

This book aims to survey the present situation of Mankind, and to provide suggestions for saving it from disaster, and helping it move towards a better future. As James Martin sees it the twenty- first century will be a decisive one for Mankind and will decide whether we are going towards a New Dark Ages, or towards a remarkably prosperous and creative human future. As Martin sees it Mankind is now facing major problems a very good share of which are self- inflicted. Among these are the problems caused by our causing damage to the Earth, and to the Biosphere. Another area of possible damage and disaster is from Terrorism and War. Also the possibilities of production of dangerous viruses, of pandemic are also disturbing. On the up side he sees a future coming soon in which the great share of work will be done by robots, the situation where the work of the great mass of mankind will no longer be needed. Martin lists seventeen challenges facing us now. 1) The healing of the Earth, its climate and environment. 2) The problem of the Poverty and short brutal lives of a good share of mankind. 3) The challenge placed by Over- population and in his judgment the need to reduce human population. 4) The problem of Lifestyles, meaning the need for people to adopt more environmentally harmless lifestyles. 5) The need to prevent a War which could destroy Mankind. 6) The challenge presented by an irreversible Globalism which must be constructed so as to allow local cultures to thrive. 7) The challenge presented by danger to the biosphere, the loss of species. 8)The challenge of Global Terrorism 9) The challenge of Creativity for the younger generation 10) The challenge presented by Disease and possible pandemics. 11) The challenge to increase the degree to which human beings realize their potential 12)The challenge presented by the Singularity the moment computer intelligence begins to feed on itself. The danger that this may get out of control 13) The challenge of Existensial Risk of mankind learning to ban unacceptable risks even if this means limiting certain kinds of scientific activity 14) The challenge presented by Transhumanism or the enhancement of human beings which may alter human nature , or possibly lead to Civilizations beyond anything we can imagine today 15) The challenge presented by an Advanced Civilization in which machines do the work and human beings have opportunities for creation beyond those they had before. 16) The challenge of 'Gaia' the earth's self- control system which we may catastrophically disrupt 17) The challenge of the Skill/ Wisdom Gap. I was especially affected by Martin 's description of the hopelessness in poverty of that portion of mankind which lives on less than two- dollars a day. His description of the shantytown worlds of the fourth - world, of the hopelessness there suggest how right and urgent he is in pushing for programs to help the poor. In other areas too he is very convincing though I found his discussions of

An inspiring call to action

In order to fully understand and appreciate James Martin's book, The Meaning of the 21st Century, the reader needs to understand the author. James Martin made his mark as a writer and entrepreneur by understanding and shaping significant trends long before others saw them or acted on them. His book, The Wired Society, published in 1977 anticipated new directions and uses of electronic communications that others could not envision. The world off electronic communications has now reshaped our world in the ways that James Martin anticipated three decades ago. Martin has now applied his gift for grasping complex systems to the most complex and critical systems that we know: human society, the natural world, and their interdependence. He has interviewed and distilled the knowledge, insights, and wisdom of many of the world's most creative and courageous thinkers looking at these systems. Martin presents us with an image of serious dilemmas, choices and solutions that will allow us to answer the question of the 21st century's meaning. His book does not hesitate to outline potentially devastating environmental, social, and technological problems that we face. It examines the interconnections between these problems and assesses, in an objective and courageous manner unseen in the political realm, the likelihood that we will be able to address global crises requiring us to re-examine how we live and even think about what it means to be human. Martin's vision is both jolting and hopeful; we are locked into some negative consequences of our actions in the realm of climate change, population growth, water shortages, etc. Even the most heroic and ingenious efforts of human society will not be able to avoid serious interrelated mid-21st century crises that will test human understanding, technology, and decency. Had Martin stopped with this prediction, his work would have been discouraging and disempowering. However he begins and concludes his book with a focus on the "transition generation", those born since 1985, who will be challenged with leading us through the most important time in human history. Mr. Martin is optimistic about the ability of human beings to transcend their limitations. And he is seeking to inspire a new generation of leaders to meet this challenge. Martin is using his personal resources to act on his vision. Having endowed the James Martin 21st Century School at Oxford University, he is also supporting the training of the `transition generation" and dispatching them to the pivotal regions and leverage points in the world, where the meaning of the 21st century hangs in balance. In fact, Martin's greatest contribution, and the unanticipated consequence of his book, The Meaning of the 21st Century, may well be in inspiring not only the youthful transition generation, but in enlisting the support and collaboration of their open-minded elders who may also awaken to the challenge of the 21 century. For every young future leader who reads

Everyone should read this Book

The book is fast paced and (despite the weight of the topic) a very enjoyable read. James Martin is a genius, technology guru and optimistic futurist. His most recent book lets us see the world's great problems - and solutions - through his eyes. If the "best and brightest" pick up this book we may have a chance in the 21st Century. It should be every parent's responsibility to read it and then give it to their children. If you are going to have the time to read only one book this year about the influences that are shaping and defining your future and the world your kids are going to inherit, this is it. This book is a crash course on the thinking, geopolitics, technology and global economics needed to survive the 21st Century. A basic theme of the book is that dramatic change is the rule for mankind's future and we can either control it or it will control us. All these changes, often exponential in their nature, are linked, and these linkages are identified and explained by Martin. There are a lot of pieces to the puzzle and they are examined just enough to put them in clear perspective. Examples are copious and fascinating. Accelerating depletion of resources, out-of-control population, China's economic bubble, pandemic diseases, nuclear terrorism - there is lot to think about here. It is a scary risk filled place we are going and that we are leaving for our children but throughout this exposé, Dr. Martin is an optimist, even faced with the many (impeccably researched) issues affecting the survival of mankind. The book does a thorough job of covering all of the big issues - giving the reader enough information to pull the pieces together, get excited, form a question or head off on a path toward a more detailed analysis, and hopefully action. The most important aspect of the book is its compelling arguments for taking advantage of the native intelligence of humans - to think for ourselves and to act in whatever way we can - locally, politically, globally. If you don't see the issue you can't possibly find a solution. This book helps us to see both the problems and defines the thinking that will bring us to the solutions. Coming from one of the smartest people to ever walk the planet Earth, we should listen and listen well. That thought is worth repeating. This is the guy that described our current state of technology and methods of business long before they were in place, decades ahead of his time on every subject he has looked at. If he doesn't have the answers - who does? A strong sub-theme is that if we are going to continue as a species, we need to listen to the best we have and not feel compelled to follow of the political ramblings of the lowest common denominator. This book will ask you to think about your future and do something about it. Hopefully you and everyone you know are ready to go there - because you're going to - like it or not. In my estimation this book will help you get intellectually ready,