Future Technologies

For those interested in ruminating on the implications of future technologies, you might want to read David D. Friedman, Future Imperfect: Technology and Freedom in an Uncertain World (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2008). Friedman states early in the book, "The conclusion I want readers to draw from this book is not that any one of the futures I sketch is going to happen. The conclusion I want them to draw is that the future is radically uncertain. In interesting ways" (p. 4). He discusses, among other things, intellectual property, personal privacy, transparency and its mixed blessings, e-business. open space and scholarship, computer crime, biotechnology, and virtual reality. He is deliberately provocative, and he often presents extreme opposite possibilities of various scenarios.