FUTURES PAST

Martin Van Creveld. Seeing Into the Future, A Short History of Prediction. Reaktion Books, 2020.

One thing you must consider when writing about looking into the future is that for a great part of human history everyone knew that the future was going to be exactly the same as the present, or that any major changes in the world would be part of some endlessly repeating cycle which had been ordained since the creation. 

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DOUBLE VISION

W. Patrick McCray. The Visioneers: How a Group of Elite Scientists Pursued Space Colonies, Nanotechnology and a Limitless Future. Princeton University Press, 2012.

This book is in effect a joint biography of two colourful characters from the world of American physics, Gerard K O’Neill and Eric Drexler, and their respective dreams of space colonies and mechanical nanotechnology.
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A VERY PALE UTOPIA

Howard P Segal. Utopias: A Brief History from Ancient Writings to Virtual Communities. Wiley-Blackwell, 2012.

Of all the visions and beliefs which have influenced humankind over the millennia, that of a radically transformed world is perhaps the most potent. Many of these visions have been of a religious nature, with transformations brought about by divine or other supernatural cause. Utopias however envisage good (or not so good) societies brought about by human action.
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BEING HUMAN

Michio Kaku. Physics of the Future: How Science Will Shape Human Destiny and Our Daily Lives by the Year 2100. Allen Lane, 2011.

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Steve Fuller. Humanity 2.0: What It Matters to be Human Past, Present and Future. Palgrave Macmillan, 2011.

Human beings have perhaps always wondered about the future and what the world might be like after their own lives. Perhaps for long periods no one assumed that the future would be any different than the past, but at least in the West over the last 200-300 years there has been an assumption of a future very different from the present. This different future has been the subject of countless dreams and nightmares.
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