Futurology from 1979, the ITV series of which kickstarted the BBC Micro programme. The rest, as they say, is history.
The book is entertainingly written and peppered with valuable insights about the nature of humanity, technology and the world, but it descends into outright bad science fiction by the time he gets onto the ‘UIMs’ (‘ultra-intelligent machines’) at the end (1991-2000 haha).
So, why is it worth reading such outdated stuff as this? My feeling is that as technology and history evolves, we pass ‘decision points’, whereby society comes to various consensus, the alternatives to that consensus get forgotten, and the consensus becomes established ‘fact’, ‘common sense’ or ‘just the obvious way things should be’. Going back to old thinking reopens our awareness onto the issues that are currently unquestioned, forgotten, assumptions and shows that once upon a time we were choosing between alternatives we’ve now forgotten about. This is a great way to be innovative I think: find past decision points and see if the choices we dismissed in the past have relevance today: often I think they do!
Anyway, the book is worth a read if it falls across your path.
