Future Stories

A User's Guide to the Future

By: David Christian

Narrated by: Jamie Jackson

Brought to you by Penguin.

A user's guide to the future: from the algorithms in DNA to why time is like a cocktail glass, interstellar migrations, transhumanism, the fate of the galaxy and the last black hole....

Every second of our lives—whether we're looking both ways before crossing the street, celebrating the birth of a baby or moving to a new city—we must cope with an unknowable future. How do we do this? And how do we, like most living organisms, manage this impossible challenge quite well (at least most of the time)?

David Christian, historian and best-selling author of Origin Story, is renowned for pioneering the emerging discipline of Big History, which surveys the whole of the past. But with Future Stories, he casts his sharp analytical eye forward, offering an introduction to the strange world of the future, and a guide to what we think we know about it at all scales, from the predictive mechanisms of single-celled organisms and tomato plants to the merging of colossal galaxies billions of years from now.

Drawing together science, history and philosophy from a huge range of places and times, Christian explores how we prepare for uncertain futures, including the future of human evolution, artificial intelligence, interstellar travel and more. By linking the study of the past much more closely to the study of the future, we can begin to imagine what the world will look like in the next hundred years and consider solutions to the biggest challenges facing us all.

©2022 David Christian (P)2022 Penguin Audio

Critic reviews

"David Christian's approach to understanding history can help all of us learn to prepare for the future." (Bill Gates)

An inspiring view of the future

A lucid and vivid insight into the future, Future Stories by David Christian (2022) explores humanity’s possible paths by blending history, science, and philosophy. Christian inspires expansive thinking about our role in shaping the future, making it a compelling read for those curious about our collective destiny.