The End of the Future by Jean Gimpel (Adamantine Press, £14.95, ISBN 0 744 90118 9) might take you aback, always a salutary experience. Gimpel maintains that Western civilisation is almost at the end of its technological tether and due for decline. He has a great time listing all the predictions made by futurologists that turned out to be wrong – nuclear-powered flight, the murder of books by the information network, commercial supersonic airliners, the conquest of diseases by antibiotics. He reckons that technology has reached a plateau, that not much will advance from now on and that eventually the West will be one with Nineveh and Tyre. He forecasts, as many do, that the future belongs to China. Of course, his glimpse of the future is just as liable to be wrong, but he is enjoyably provocative.
More from New ÒÁÈ˾þÃ
Explore the latest news, articles and features
Health
Woman with Alzheimer's starts conversing again after taking psilocybin
News
Life
New-to-science spider builds trap that flings ants into the air
News
Health
How menopause radically changes the brain – and what happens after
Features
Mind
‘Fusogenic’ neurosurgery let paralysed pigs walk again – are we next?
Comment
Popular articles
Trending New ÒÁÈ˾þà articles
1
How menopause radically changes the brain – and what happens after
2
Can prebiotics, probiotics or postbiotics help your ageing microbiome?
3
Faecal transplant makes the brains of old mice act young again
4
The surprising ways your brain changes from your 20s to your 40s
5
People training new AI models admit they just get chatbots to do it
6
A quantum state that lasts forever may finally be within our grasp
7
Most portable air conditioners suck – but there's an easy fix
8
We've found a mysterious substance on Titan and Pluto
9
New-to-science spider builds trap that flings ants into the air
10
A promising natural technique to remove CO2 could backfire
