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A New History of the Future in 100 Objects

A Fiction

A Fiction

By Adrian Hon

By Adrian Hon

By Adrian Hon

By Adrian Hon

Best Seller

Category: Science Fiction

Category: Science Fiction

Paperback $21.95

Oct 06, 2020 | ISBN 9780262539371

Ebook $16.99

Oct 06, 2020 | ISBN 9780262360388

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    A New History of the Future in 100 Objects by Adrian Hon
    Paperback $21.95
    Oct 06, 2020 | ISBN 9780262539371

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      Oct 06, 2020 | ISBN 9780262539371

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    About A New History of the Future in 100 Objects

    Imagining the history of the twenty-first century through its artifacts, from silent messaging systems to artificial worlds on asteroids.

    In the year 2082, a curator looks back at the twenty-first century, offering a history of the era through a series of objects and artifacts. He reminisces about the power of connectivity, which was reinforced by such technologies as silent messaging—wearable computers that relay subvocal communication; recalls the Fourth Great Awakening, when a regimen of pills could make someone virtuous; and notes disapprovingly the use of locked interrogation, which delivers “enhanced interrogation” simulations via virtual reality. The unnamed curator quotes from a self-help guide to making friends with “posthumans,” describes the establishment of artificial worlds on asteroids, and recounts pro-democracy movements in epistocratic states. In A New History of the Future in 100 Objects, Adrian Hon constructs a possible future by imagining the things it might leave in its wake.

    Many of these things are just an update or two away: improved ankle monitors, for example, and deliverbots. Others may be the logical conclusions of current trends—“downvote” networks that identify and erase undesirables, and Glyphish, an emoticon-based language that supersedes the written word. More benign are Braid Collective, which provides financial support for artists, and Rechartered Cities, which invites immigrants to revitalize urban areas hollowed out by changing demographics. With this engaging and ingenious work, Hon leads the way into an imagined future while offering readers a new perspective on the present.

    About A New History of the Future in 100 Objects

    A riveting imagined history looking back on the twenty-first century through one hundred of its artifacts, from silent messaging systems to artificial worlds on asteroids.

    In the year 2082, a curator looks back at the twenty-first century, offering a history of the era through a series of objects and artifacts. He reminisces about the power of connectivity, which was reinforced by such technologies as silent messaging–wearable computers that relay subvocal communication; quotes from a self-help guide to making friends with “posthumans”; describes the establishment of artificial worlds on asteroids; and recounts pro-democracy movements in epistocratic states. In A New History of the Future in 100 Objects, Adrian Hon constructs a possible future by imagining the things it might leave in its wake.

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    Read An Excerpt

    Product Details

    Category: Science Fiction

    Paperback | $21.95
    Published by The MIT Press
    Oct 06, 2020 | 384 Pages | 6 x 9 | ISBN 9780262539371

    Category: Science Fiction

    Ebook | $16.99
    Published by The MIT Press
    Oct 06, 2020 | 344 Pages | 6 x 9 | ISBN 9780262360388

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    Praise

    “Futurists and science fiction die-hards will delight in this impressive feat of imagination.”
    —Publishers Weekly

    Table Of Contents

    Introduction
    Ankle Surveillance Monitors
    Speeky
    The Guide
    The Braid Collective
    Silent Messaging
    Smart Drugs
    The Twelve Technological Virtues
    Locked Simulation Interrogation
    Disaster Kits
    UCS Deliverbot
    The Conversation Brokers
    46 Central Green
    Mimic Scripts
    The Algal Boom
    Nautilus-1
    Glyphish
    The Value of Work
    Two Towers
    The Sudan-Shanghai Connection
    Embodiment
    Insurgency in a Box
    Tropical Race Six
    Désir
    Saudi Spring
    The Halls
    Amplified Teams
    Middle Eye
    Thylacinus cynocephalus
    The Curve of Babel
    World of Glass
    Structured Light
    Tianxia
    Negotiation Agents
    Reading Rooms
    Pan-Pan-Climate SAGA
    Five-Niner Heavy
    Active Clothing
    The Contrapuntal Hack
    The Kill Switch
    Micromort Detector
    Chinese Tourism
    Owen’s Original Cloned Burger
    The USTC Crash
    Rituals for the Secular
    Muon Detector
    The Saint of Safekeepers
    The Imitation Game
    Miriam Xu’s Lace
    The Loop
    The Seamstress’s New Tools
    Choosing a Driving Plan
    Nobel Prize for Medicine
    Funerary Monuments
    Basic Maximum Income
    Alto Firenze
    A Cure for Hate
    Shanghai Six
    New Library of Malmo
    The Dim Sum Lunches
    Secret Life of the High Street
    New Worlds
    Prince George
    Multiple Autonomous Element Supervisor
    Javelin
    Euphoric Gastronomy
    The Hunt for the Thylacine
    Giving Nothing a Name
    Rechartered Cities
    The Old Drones, Equal Rights
    Fourth Great Awakening
    The Collingwood Meteor
    The Downvoted
    Marriage Contracts
    The Lido
    Death of a Mouse
    Systemic Memome Project
    The Fires of Mahoutokoro
    The Observavi Database
    The New Democracies
    50% Unemployment
    The Dream
    The Cascade
    OAID Deployment
    The Brain Bubble
    How to Watch TV
    Amanda and Martin
    The Half-Empty World
    Enhance, Narada’s Box
    A Letter from Mars
    Moral Agents
    The Melt Event
    How to get Posthuman Friends
    Rewilding Saï Island
    Cepheid Variable
    Neuroethicist Identity Exam
    Cooling Venus, Biomes
    Our Unimproved Simulation
    Trip of a Lifetime

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