Futurehype: The Tyranny of Prophecy - Hardcover

Max Dublin

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0670824453 ISBN 13: 9780670824458

Publisher: Viking Press, 1989

Synopsis

Charting the rise of futurologists and the increasingly powerful roles they are playing in our society, Max Dublin makes clear the appeal that futurology has for us as a way of minimizing our anxieties. But oon a far more dangerous level, Dublin traces the profound effect the institutionalization of prophecy is having on the military, our educational system and health care system. He notes that our overwhelming willingness to be guided by futurologists with their own agendas is in fact narrowing our choices for the future and locking us into a present that is at best increasingly bland and mediocre, and at worst, harmful.

About this title

From Publishers Weekly:

Most of the predictions made by futurists, self-proclaimed pundits and trend-spotters turn out to be false, charges Dublin. In a masterful and enjoyable debunking of the pretensions of crystal gazers in all fields, this University of Toronto sociologist administers a sound drubbing to Buckminster Fuller, Henry Kissinger, Arthur Clarke, John Naisbitt, Herman Kahn, New Age sage Stewart Brand and others whose prophecies have, in Dublin's reckoning, proved misleading or false. His targets include artificial-intelligence gurus who hype a "computer revolution" in the classroom, the Reagan administration's "simplistic, debilitating" supply-side economics and nuclear strategists who put forth dire prophecies to justify military buildup. He lambastes forecasters in the oil industry, health-care technocrats, nuclear-fusion advocates and apostles of a "post-industrial society" supposedly run on a flow of information and services. With a wealth of examples, Dublin drives home his message that false predictions act like false promises, lulling us into a sense of inevitability and causing us to act in self-defeating ways.
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal:

Humans have always had a curiosity for the future with every generation producing its own prophets, wizards, and seers. Today, we have a blossoming "futurism industry" proclaiming the next megatrend and issuing incessant pronouncements about the future of technology, economics, education, and the political order. The thesis of this remarkable book by Toronto sociologist Dublin is that there are discernible dangers in our fascination to know and in our need to react to these increasingly influential "futurehype" forecasts. Arguing that many so-called futurists are nothing more than modern snake-oil salesmen, Dublin points out how difficult it is to accurately forecast the future, how such (often incorrect) predictions affect the policy decisions being made today and why they cause us to ignore current problems that need our attention. While this volume holds a valuable message for any intelligent reader, this book is especially poignant for planners and forecasters. Recommended for larger public library collections.
- Gene R. Laczniak, Marquette Univ., Milwaukee
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About this edition

• Publisher: Viking Press
• Publication date: 1989
• ISBN 10: 0670824453
• ISBN 13: 9780670824458
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 296