The Invention of Tomorrow: A Natural History of Foresight

Journeying through biology, psychology, history and culture, a group of cognitive scientists, drawing on their own cutting-edge research, break down the science of foresight, showing us where it comes from, how it works and how it made our world. 20,000 first printing. Illustrations.
"Apes can do a lot of things that we can, too: they can use tools, tell bigger from smaller, and even say hello. But one thing they can't do is say "see you tomorrow." That's not just because they don't speak English, but because they are unable to imagine reencountering another ape in the future. Humans, of course, can. As Thomas Suddendorf, Jon Redshaw, and Adam Bulley reveal, that represents a truly earth-shattering capacity. In The Invention of Tomorrow, the three cognitive scientists argue that humanity's unique capacity for foresight is the key to our global dominance. Our minds work like time machines, they explain, allowing us to relive past events in order to predict possible futures. Drawing on cutting-edge research from the last decade - including much of the authors' own work - Suddendorf, Redshaw, and Bulley break down the science of foresight, showing us how this fundamental tool evolved and what makes it unique among animal minds. Foresight powers what are essentially private mental time machines that power our species' capacity for innovation, communication, and moral responsibility. Ultimately, the authors offer us a new vision of human progress, one that foregrounds our capacity to think ahead. Even though we sometimes get it wrong, they argue, human beings are better able to handle future dangers than any creature that has ever existed. The Invention of Tomorrow is a paradigm-shifting exploration of one of humanity's greatest powers, showing how an apparently banal trait has been the key to human ingenuity and culture"--
A spellbinding exploration of the human capacity to imagine the future Our ability to think about the future is one of the most powerful tools at our disposal. In The Invention of Tomorrow, cognitive scientists Thomas Suddendorf, Jonathan Redshaw, and Adam Bulley argue that its emergence transformed humans from unremarkable primates to creatures that hold the destiny of the planet in their hands.  Drawing on their own cutting-edge research, the authors break down the science of foresight, showing us where it comes from, how it works, and how it made our world. Journeying through biology, psychology, history, and culture, they show that thinking ahead is at the heart of human nature—even if we often get it terribly wrong. Incisive and expansive, The Invention of Tomorrow offers a fresh perspective on the human tale that shows how our species clawed its way to control the future.