Near Future

Author : Ernest Cline
Publisher : Ballantine Books
Page : 386 pages
File Size : 50,7 Mb
Release : 2011-08-16
Category : Fiction
ISBN : 9780307887450

Get Book

Ready Player One by Ernest Cline Pdf

#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • Now a major motion picture directed by Steven Spielberg. “Enchanting . . . Willy Wonka meets The Matrix.”—USA Today • “As one adventure leads expertly to the next, time simply evaporates.”—Entertainment Weekly A world at stake. A quest for the ultimate prize. Are you ready? In the year 2045, reality is an ugly place. The only time Wade Watts really feels alive is when he’s jacked into the OASIS, a vast virtual world where most of humanity spends their days. When the eccentric creator of the OASIS dies, he leaves behind a series of fiendish puzzles, based on his obsession with the pop culture of decades past. Whoever is first to solve them will inherit his vast fortune—and control of the OASIS itself. Then Wade cracks the first clue. Suddenly he’s beset by rivals who’ll kill to take this prize. The race is on—and the only way to survive is to win. NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY Entertainment Weekly • San Francisco Chronicle • Village Voice • Chicago Sun-Times • iO9 • The AV Club “Delightful . . . the grown-up’s Harry Potter.”—HuffPost “An addictive read . . . part intergalactic scavenger hunt, part romance, and all heart.”—CNN “A most excellent ride . . . Cline stuffs his novel with a cornucopia of pop culture, as if to wink to the reader.”—Boston Globe “Ridiculously fun and large-hearted . . . Cline is that rare writer who can translate his own dorky enthusiasms into prose that’s both hilarious and compassionate.”—NPR “[A] fantastic page-turner . . . starts out like a simple bit of fun and winds up feeling like a rich and plausible picture of future friendships in a world not too distant from our own.”—iO9

Author : J. G. Ballard
Publisher : Vintage Books USA
Page : 205 pages
File Size : 53,7 Mb
Release : 1994
Category : Electronic
ISBN : 0099334712

Get Book

Myths of the Near Future by J. G. Ballard Pdf

First published 1982. Short stories providing visions of other times and other places, where nothing seems quite right

Author : Andrew Hewett Malcolm Lomas
Publisher : Austin Macauley
Page : 0 pages
File Size : 42,9 Mb
Release : 2020-03
Category : Electronic
ISBN : 1528908929

Get Book

The Near Future by Andrew Hewett Malcolm Lomas Pdf

The Near Future is a dystopian thriller set in a fictional United Kingdom where global warming has left the country ravaged. Migrants to this country are forced to live in squalor as the scapegoats of a corrupt media-savvy government. The protagonist is an unwilling government worker torn between these worlds. He navigates through heat waves, informants, poverty and squalid decadence. This is a country where families camp out on vanishing beaches and people seek solace in synthetic gurus. His only means of survival is to track down and eliminate an old friend. This former ally lives in a youthful freedom he can only dream of.

Author : David Sergeant
Publisher : Cambridge University Press
Page : 239 pages
File Size : 41,8 Mb
Release : 2022-12-31
Category : Art
ISBN : 9781009279888

Get Book

The Near Future in 21st Century Fiction by David Sergeant Pdf

Explores contemporary fiction set in the near future to shed new light on our culture's relationship to the Anthropocene.

Author : Sedlmeier, Katrin
Publisher : KIT Scientific Publishing
Page : 200 pages
File Size : 52,6 Mb
Release : 2020-01-16
Category : Science
ISBN : 9783731504764

Get Book

Near future changes of compound extreme events from an ensemble of regional climate simulations by Sedlmeier, Katrin Pdf

Author : Sandra Costanzo
Publisher : BoD – Books on Demand
Page : 210 pages
File Size : 46,6 Mb
Release : 2017-05-03
Category : Technology & Engineering
ISBN : 9789535131274

Get Book

Wave Propagation Concepts for Near-Future Telecommunication Systems by Sandra Costanzo Pdf

Wave Propagation Concepts for Near-Future Telecommunication Systems is an edited book discussing recent researches for the development of innovative telecommunication systems, with particular focus on the propagation aspects and radiating systems design. It is divided into two sections: Section 1, devoted to the illustration of advanced results in terms of microwave propagation at high operating frequencies, and Section 2, illustrating new electromagnetic concepts and applications.

Author : Hyungmin Pai,Alejandro Zaera-Polo
Publisher : Actar D, Inc.
Page : 442 pages
File Size : 40,5 Mb
Release : 2022-02-04
Category : Architecture
ISBN : 9781638409991

Get Book

Imminent Commons: Urban Questions for the Near Future by Hyungmin Pai,Alejandro Zaera-Polo Pdf

The cities of the world stand at a crossroads. Amidst radical social, economic, and technological transformations, will the city become a driving force of creativity, diversity, and sustainability, or will it be a mechanism of inequality, despair, and environmental decay? At this critical moment, where do the stakes lie and what are the agents of change? From the time of its birth, the city has been held together by the commons. The book includes essays by Alejandro Zaera, Hyungmin Pai, Maider Llaguno, Nerea Calvillo, Hyewon Lee, Lindsay Bremner, Alex Ivancic, Iñaki Abalos, Charles Waldheim, David Gissen, Carlo Ratti, Daniele Belleri, Antoine Pico, Saskia Saseen, Adam Greenfield, Jesse LeCavalier, Philip Rode, Duncan McLaren, Julian Agyeman, Gunter Pauli, Gramazio and Kohler, Mario Carpo, Dirk E. Hebel, Marta H. Wisniewska, Felix Heisel, Mitchell Joachim, and Christian Hubert. The first publication of the Seoul Biennale of Architecture and Urbanism 2017, proposes a framework that sets basic commons ? an evolving network of agencies, resources and technologies ? as the critical issue in the move towards a sustainable and just urbanism. It shows an exploration not of distant utopias, but of the very near future, because the emerging commons is changing the way we connect, make, move, recycle, sense, and share, and the way we manage air, water, energy and the earth. Whether met with fear or hope, they will very soon change the way we live in the city.

Author : Tim Conley
Publisher : Unknown
Page : 0 pages
File Size : 55,7 Mb
Release : 2015
Category : Short stories
ISBN : 1554201055

Get Book

Dance Moves of the Near Future by Tim Conley Pdf

Author : Suzannah Evans
Publisher : Unknown
Page : 0 pages
File Size : 41,5 Mb
Release : 2018
Category : Poetry, Modern
ISBN : 1911027468

Get Book

Near Future by Suzannah Evans Pdf

Suzannah Evans' debut collection Near Future is doom-pop-poetry with an apocalyptic edge, a darkly humorous journey through sci-fi lullabies and northern mysteries. This is a future simulation stripped of the space-age gloss of progression - one where the robots have gone rogue and the hopes of a new millennium are malfunctioning; this is a skewed yet oddly familiar world gone uncannily wrong. These playful, sharp, poems are also about more than dystopias and five types of possible apocalypse - in looking at the worst-case scenarios, Evans comes closer to the bigger narrative; universal truths of change, whether man-made or natural, preventable of inevitable, and the uncertain business of human existence where 'there are disasters that you cannot prepare yourself for'. Evans brings a distinctive, skilful and wonderfully peculiar roving eye to our restless and unpredictable times.

Author : Jonathan Evison
Publisher : Algonquin Books
Page : 256 pages
File Size : 45,6 Mb
Release : 2018-04-03
Category : Fiction
ISBN : 9781616208257

Get Book

Lawn Boy by Jonathan Evison Pdf

“Jonathan Evison's voice is pure magic. In Lawn Boy, at once a vibrant coming-of-age novel and a sharp social commentary on class, Evison offers a painfully honest portrait of one young man's struggle to overcome the hand he's been dealt in life and reach for his dreams. It's a journey you won't want to miss, with an ending you won't forget.” —Kristin Hannah, author of The Nightingale For Mike Muñoz, a young Chicano living in Washington State, life has been a whole lot of waiting for something to happen. Not too many years out of high school and still doing menial work—and just fired from his latest gig as a lawn boy on a landscaping crew—he knows that he’s got to be the one to shake things up if he’s ever going to change his life. But how? In this funny, angry, touching, and ultimately deeply inspiring novel, bestselling author Jonathan Evison takes the reader into the heart and mind of a young man on a journey to discover himself, a search to find the secret to achieving the American dream of happiness and prosperity. That’s the birthright for all Americans, isn’t it? If so, then what is Mike Muñoz’s problem? Though he tries time and again to get his foot on the first rung of that ladder to success, he can’t seem to get a break. But then things start to change for Mike, and after a raucous, jarring, and challenging trip, he finds he can finally see the future and his place in it. And it’s looking really good. Lawn Boy is an important, entertaining, and completely winning novel about social class distinctions, about overcoming cultural discrimination, and about standing up for oneself.

Author : Kim Stanley Robinson
Publisher : Hachette UK
Page : 578 pages
File Size : 46,7 Mb
Release : 2020-10-06
Category : Fiction
ISBN : 9780356508856

Get Book

The Ministry for the Future by Kim Stanley Robinson Pdf

ONE OF BARACK OBAMA'S FAVOURITE READS OF THE YEAR 'If I could get policymakers and citizens everywhere to read just one book this year, it would be Kim Stanley Robinson's The Ministry for the Future' Ezra Klein, Vox 'A great read' Bill Gates The Ministry for the Future is a masterpiece of the imagination, using fictional eyewitness accounts to tell the story of how climate change will affect us all. Its setting is not a desolate, postapocalyptic world, but a future that is almost upon us. Chosen by Barack Obama as one of his favorite books of the year, this extraordinary novel from visionary writer Kim Stanley Robinson will change the way you think about the climate crisis. 'A novel that presents a rousing vision of how we might unite to overcome the greatest challenge of our time' TED.com 'A breathtaking look at the challenges that face our planet in all their sprawling magnitude and also in their intimate, individual moments of humanity' Booklist (starred review) 'Gutsy, humane . . . a must-read for anyone worried about the future of the planet' Publishers Weekly (starred review) 'A sweeping epic about climate change and humanity's efforts to try and turn the tide before it's too late' Polygon (Best of the Year) 'Steely, visionary optimism' Guardian

Author : Ray Kurzweil
Publisher : Penguin
Page : 672 pages
File Size : 51,7 Mb
Release : 2005-09-22
Category : Social Science
ISBN : 9781101218884

Get Book

The Singularity Is Near by Ray Kurzweil Pdf

“Startling in scope and bravado.” —Janet Maslin, The New York Times “Artfully envisions a breathtakingly better world.” —Los Angeles Times “Elaborate, smart and persuasive.” —The Boston Globe “A pleasure to read.” —The Wall Street Journal One of CBS News’s Best Fall Books of 2005 • Among St Louis Post-Dispatch’s Best Nonfiction Books of 2005 • One of Amazon.com’s Best Science Books of 2005 A radical and optimistic view of the future course of human development from the bestselling author of How to Create a Mind and The Singularity is Nearer who Bill Gates calls “the best person I know at predicting the future of artificial intelligence” For over three decades, Ray Kurzweil has been one of the most respected and provocative advocates of the role of technology in our future. In his classic The Age of Spiritual Machines, he argued that computers would soon rival the full range of human intelligence at its best. Now he examines the next step in this inexorable evolutionary process: the union of human and machine, in which the knowledge and skills embedded in our brains will be combined with the vastly greater capacity, speed, and knowledge-sharing ability of our creations.

Author : John Scalzi
Publisher : Macmillan
Page : 312 pages
File Size : 54,5 Mb
Release : 2014-08-26
Category : Fiction
ISBN : 9781466849358

Get Book

Lock In by John Scalzi Pdf

A blazingly inventive near-future thriller from the best-selling, Hugo Award-winning John Scalzi. Not too long from today, a new, highly contagious virus makes its way across the globe. Most who get sick experience nothing worse than flu, fever and headaches. But for the unlucky one percent - and nearly five million souls in the United States alone - the disease causes "Lock In": Victims fully awake and aware, but unable to move or respond to stimulus. The disease affects young, old, rich, poor, people of every color and creed. The world changes to meet the challenge. A quarter of a century later, in a world shaped by what's now known as "Haden's syndrome," rookie FBI agent Chris Shane is paired with veteran agent Leslie Vann. The two of them are assigned what appears to be a Haden-related murder at the Watergate Hotel, with a suspect who is an "integrator" - someone who can let the locked in borrow their bodies for a time. If the Integrator was carrying a Haden client, then naming the suspect for the murder becomes that much more complicated. But "complicated" doesn't begin to describe it. As Shane and Vann began to unravel the threads of the murder, it becomes clear that the real mystery - and the real crime - is bigger than anyone could have imagined. The world of the locked in is changing, and with the change comes opportunities that the ambitious will seize at any cost. The investigation that began as a murder case takes Shane and Vann from the halls of corporate power to the virtual spaces of the locked in, and to the very heart of an emerging, surprising new human culture. It's nothing you could have expected. Other Tor Books Lock In: Lock In / Head On Old Man's War: Old Man's War / The Ghost Brigades / The Last Colony / Zoe's Tale / The Human Division / The End of All Things The Interdpendency: The Collapsing Empire / The Consuming Fire / The Last Emperox The Android’s Dream Agent to the Stars Your Hate Mail Will Be Graded Fuzzy Nation Redshirts At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.

Author : Evelyn Waugh
Publisher : McClelland & Stewart
Page : 38 pages
File Size : 51,8 Mb
Release : 2017-01-17
Category : Fiction
ISBN : 9780735252998

Get Book

Love Among the Ruins by Evelyn Waugh Pdf

Evelyn Waugh dips his toes into the world of science fiction. In a future, dystopian Britain, Miles Plastic is in prison for arson. Which isn’t so bad, really – the prisons are actually quite nice. When he is released, he finds himself a nice, wholesome job at a state-run euthanasia clinic trying to control the crushing volume of voluntary applicants. At the clinic he meets Clara, a beautiful, bearded woman, and falls in love. But, as it turns out, love formed at a euthanasia clinic is fraught with its own unique challenges. Penguin Random House Canada is proud to bring you classic works of literature in e-book form, with the highest quality production values. Find more today and rediscover books you never knew you loved.

Author : Michael Bess
Publisher : Beacon Press
Page : 321 pages
File Size : 54,8 Mb
Release : 2015-10-13
Category : Medical
ISBN : 9780807052174

Get Book

Our Grandchildren Redesigned by Michael Bess Pdf

A panoramic overview of biotechnologies that can endlessly boost human capabilities and the drastic changes these “superhuman” traits could trigger Biotechnology is moving fast. In the coming decades, advanced pharmaceuticals, bioelectronics, and genetic interventions will be used not only to heal the sick but to boost human physical and mental performance to unprecedented levels. People will have access to pills that make them stronger and faster, informatic devices will interface seamlessly with the human brain, and epigenetic modification may allow people to reshape their own physical and mental identities at will. Until recently, such major technological watersheds—like the development of metal tools or the industrialization of manufacturing—came about incrementally over centuries or longer. People and social systems had time to adapt: they gradually developed new values, norms, and habits to accommodate the transformed material conditions. But contemporary society is dangerously unprepared for the dramatic changes it is about to experience down this road on which it is already advancing at an accelerating pace. The results will no doubt be mixed. People will live longer, healthier lives, will fine-tune their own thought processes, and will generate staggeringly complex and subtle forms of knowledge and insight. But these technologies also threaten to widen the rift between rich and poor, to generate new forms of social and economic division, and to force people to engage in constant cycles of upgrades and boosts merely to keep up. Individuals who boost their traits beyond a certain threshold may acquire such extreme capabilities that they will no longer be recognized as unambiguously human. In this important and timely book, prize-winning historian Michael Bess provides a clear, nontechnical overview of cutting-edge biotechnology and paints a vivid portrait of a near-future society in which bioenhancement has become a part of everyday life. He surveys the ethical questions raised by the enhancement enterprise and explores the space for human agency in dealing with the challenges that these technologies will present. Headed your way over the coming decades: new biotechnologies that can powerfully alter your body and mind. The possibilities are tantalizing: • Rejuvenation therapies offering much longer lives (160 and even beyond) in full vigor and mental acuity • Cognitive enhancement through chemical or bioelectronic means (the rough equivalent of doubling or tripling IQ scores) • Epigenetic tools for altering some of your genetically influenced traits at any point in your lifetime (body shape, athletic ability, intelligence, personality) • Bioelectronic devices for modulating your own brain processes, including your “pleasure centers” (a potentially non-stop high) • Direct control of machines by thought, and perhaps direct communication with other people, brain-to-brain (a new dimension of sharing and intimacy) But some of the potential consequences are also alarming: • A growing rift between the biologically enhanced and those who can’t afford such modifications • A constant cycle of upgrades and boosts as the bar of “normal” rises ever higher—“Humans 95, Humans XP, Humans 8” • The fragmentation of humankind into rival “bioenhancement clusters” • A gradually blurring boundary between “person” and “product” • Extreme forms of self-modification, with some individuals no longer recognized as unambiguously human