The Future Factor: Forces Transforming Human Destiny / Edition 1

by Michael G. Zey

Overview

The Future Factor offers an inspiring, optimistic view of the human future. Sociologist Michael G. Zey shows how breathtaking innovations in fields such as biotechnology, computing, robotics, medicine, energy development and space technology are catapulting global society into a new era of abundance and prosperity.

As the third millennium begins, technological breakthroughs provide unprecedented opportunities for growth, profitability and organizational and personal reinvention. However, to stay ahead of the curve and anticipate future developments before competitors and peers do, leaders, companies and individuals must be equipped with the capacity to make informed decisions.

In The Future Factor, Zey provides the sophisticated cutting-edge knowledge needed to achieve competitive advantage that individuals require to make career and life choices. Zey paints a big picture of new forces—biogenesis, cybergenesis, species coalescence and dominionization—that are subtly impacting society and the global economy and changing forever the way we live. Among the subjects explored in this wide-ranging book are: the role cybergenisis will play in making humans healthier; the universal communication network based on the Internet and virtual reality; biogenesis, gene therapy and decoding the human genome; "next generation" robots, smart machines and their impact on economic growth; the colonization of space and the advent of "space tourism"; fusion-based energy and its effect on the environment and global economy; global transportation and a worldwide superhighway; and biotechnological breakthroughs in agriculture and food production.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780765805911
Publisher:	Taylor & Francis
Publication date:	04/30/2004
Edition description:	New Introduction Edition
Pages:	326
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x (d)

About the Author

Michael G. Zey, an internationally recognized futurist and sociologist, is a professor at Montclair State University, and has written several books on the subjects of social, economic, and technological trends, including The Future Factor and Seizing the Future.

Michael G. Zey, an internationally recognized futurist and sociologist, is a professor at Montclair State University, and has written several books on the subjects of social, economic, and technological trends, including The Future Factor and Seizing the Future.

Table of Contents

Transaction Introduction, Preface, Acknowledgments, Prologue: Creating the Human Future, 1. Dominionization: Humanity Ventures Forth and Learns Nature's Ways, 2. Biogenesis: Creating the Prototype for the Next Human Being, 3. Cybergenesis: Of Men and the Smart Machine, 4. Species Coalescence, 5. Vitalizing the Universe: In the Heavens as It Is on Earth, 6. The Expansionary Vision of Human Development, 7. The Creation of the Humaniverse, 8. The Battle for the Future, Epilogue: At the Threshold of the Expansionary Age, Appendix: Related Web Sites, Notes, Index