Nick Foster, an in-demand consultant to GOOGLE, Nokia, Sony, Dyson and many other Big Tech companies, is a “futurist” even though he doesn’t like that term. Foster’s new book, Could Should Might Don’t (2025), presents a model for thinking about the Future.
The Future business is littered with false promises: flying cars, cold fusion, women’s equality, etc. Foster explores why predictions go wrong…and how they come true.
The reason I’m recommending Nick Foster’s book is that unlike a lot of books I’ve read about the Future, Foster is willing to talk about the risks of predicting the Future. Trump should have read Could Should Might Don’t before he started the disastrous Iran War (or Excursion). “Unintended Consequences” are the bane of prediction.
If you want to think about the Future in a rational, more reliable, and serious way, give Could Should Might Don’t a try. What do you think about the Future? GRADE: B+
TABLE OF CONTENTS:
- Preface — vii
- Just imagine — 3
- The metronome quickens — 9
- A reluctant futurist — 29
Could
- Oh, wow — 47
- Science fiction — 53
- The roots of could futurism — 58
- Could futurism in public — 64
- Commercial could futurism — 78
- Heroic futures and background talent — 87
Should: The Futurism of Goals
Better — 103
Belief — 109
On Prediction — 117
Empirical Futures — 132
Numeric Fiction — 141
The Future is Accretive — 151
Might
- Futures plural — 167
- Think tanks — 176
- Strategic foresight — 181
- The limits of imagination — 193
- Regurgitative futures — 203
- Wagging the dog — 212
Don’t
- Critique, caution, and fear — 231
- Algorithmic adversity — 242
- Toxic positivity and solutionism — 252
- Dependencies, implications, and ends — 262
- Extrapolatory futures — 280
- And so… — 301
- The future mundane — 305
- There’s plenty of future left — 323
- Thank you — 338
Like Bill Crider, I believe we’re doomed. But, like Deb, I recognize that we’re old and won’t be here to see the consequences.
Jeff, I think we’re seeing the consequences in Real Time now. The Economy is sliding towards a Recession. Personal debt is growing. People can’t afford housing. There will be food shortages. Not a pretty picture…
What Jeff said. There was a book a couple of years ago titled THE HEAT WILL KILL YOU FIRST, about the catastrophic consequences of global warming (which has now hit its tipping point and is going to be almost impossible to reverse). So while tech-bros and futurists wax lyrical about AI and crypto, the future will be one of floods, hunger, riots, and turmoil. Have I mentioned lately that I’m glad I’m old?
Deb, one of my sisters lives in Tucson, Arizona and she called last week to tell me her area was under a Heat Alert. “Tomorrow it’s going to be oner a 100 degrees!” she exclaimed. “What is it going to be like in August?” I asked. “Hot as Hell,” she replied.
I’m glad I’m old too but I worry about my kids and grandkids. As for Trump learning anything about unintended consequences, that supposes (1 Trump and his billionaire enablers didn’t realize what windfalls they’d gain from stock market disruptions and munitions sales, and (2 a sociopath cares about collateral damages.
Fred, Trump certainly knows nothing about War. He keeps saying “We Won” but the Iranians don’t agree with him. This was projected to be a quick and easy war by the Secretary of War and Little Marco, but it hasn’t turned out that way.
George–surely you jest about Drumpf reading?
And if you wanted to buy personalized and thus expensive items from David Hartwell’s library, there’s this: https://www.jamescumminsbookseller.com/searchResults.php?recordsLength=100&action=catalog&browseLetter=A&category_id=2298&orderBy=author&view=list
–don’t buy any for Donald.
Todd, my book acquisitions have slowed down to a trickle. More books are leaving my house than coming in. Thanks for the link!
Predicting the future is a grift! Guys like this should be burned as witches!
Bob, they may be witches, but they are showered with millions of dollars of consulting money!
Consultants are another thing altogether! Some are probably useful, some are a giant waste of money!
Bob, you could be right…