Foresight (Darwin College Lectures)

Cambridge University Press, 10/13/2016
EAN 9781107512368, ISBN10: 1107512360

Paperback, 192 pages, 25.4 x 17.8 x 1.1 cm
Language: English

How do attempts to foresee the future actually change it? For thousands of years, humans have called upon foresight to shape their own actions in order to adapt and survive; as Charles Darwin revealed in his theory of natural selection, the capacity to do just that is key to the origin of species. The uses of foresight, however, can also be applied to help us further our understanding across a variety of realms in everything from warfare, journalism and music, to ancient civilizations, space weather and science. In a thought-provoking new addition to the Darwin College Lecture Series, eight distinguished authors each present an essay from their area of expertise devoted to the theme of 'foresight'. This provocative read reveals foresight as a process that can be identified across all areas of human endeavour, an art which can not only predict the future, but make it anything but inevitable.

1. Foresight in ancient civilisations Geoffrey Lloyd
2. Foresight in journalism Bridget Kendall
3. Foresight and fiction Robert Sawyer
4. Foresight in scientific method Hasok Chang
5. Foresight in music Nicholas Cook
6. Foreseeing in space weather Jim Wild
7. Foresight and self-control Terrie Moffitt
8. Foresight in Ancient Mesopotamia Francesca Rochberg
Index.