The Future by Nick MontfortMy rating: 3 of 5 stars
Montfort tells a history of the future. Or, in other words, what “the future” meant to people over time. He does this in this short book by focusing on a few specific topics. One was the utopian writers from the last turn of the century. He covers how the future was portrayed in art, and in various World’s Fairs and other exhibits (like EPCOT). He describes the founding of hypertext and HTML and how that was an attempt to build a future. And he describes some future depictions in books of a more recent vintage, what I call “scenario planning fiction”. Given the shortness of the chapters, the author can only mention some specific examples and muse about their connection to society of the day and to the actual creation of the future, but if you are in the mood for these kinds of musings, you may find this of interest. I enjoy these kinds of books, and appreciated the smattering of examples and the comparisons and analysis. The book ends with a call to use the arts and media to create scenarios for the future. Makes sense. I suspect this would be even better with more length.
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