Future Imperfect

by Friedman, David D.

• ISBN13: 9781107601659
• ISBN10: 1107601657
• Edition: Reprint
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2011-09-19
• Publisher: Cambridge Univ Pr

Summary

Future Imperfect describes and discusses a variety of technological revolutions that might happen over the next few decades, their implications, and how to deal with them. Topics range from encryption and surveillance through biotechnology and nanotechnology to life extension, mind drugs, virtual reality, and artificial intelligence. One theme of the book is that the future is radically uncertain. Technological changes already begun could lead to more or less privacy than we have ever known, freedom or slavery, effective immortality or the elimination of our species, and radical changes in life, marriage, law, medicine, work, and play. We do not know which future will arrive, but it is unlikely to be much like the past. It is worth starting to think about it now.

Author Biography

David D. Friedman is Professor of Law at Santa Clara University, California. His first book, The Machinery of Freedom: Guide to a Radical Capitalism, was published in 1973, remains in print, and is considered a libertarian classic. His scientific interest in the future is also long-standing. Professor Friedman's Web page, www.davidfriedman.com, averages more than 3,000 visitors a day, and his blog, Ideas, at http://daviddfriedman.blogspot.com, receives about 400 daily visits.

Table of Contents

Prologue
Introduction	p. 3
Living with Change	p. 12
Privacy and Technology
A World of Strong Privacy	p. 31
Information Processing: Threat or Menace? Or If Information Is Property, Who Owns It?	p. 54
Surveillance Technology: The Universal Panopticon	p. 66
Doing Business Online
Ecash	p. 83
Contracts in Cyberspace	p. 97
Watermarks and Barbed Wire	p. 108
Reactionary Progress - Amateur Scholars and Open Source	p. 123
Intermission: What's a Meta Phor?	p. 144
Crime and Control
The Future of Computer Crime	p. 163
Law Enforcement x 2	p. 173
Biotechnologies
Human Reproduction	p. 189
The More You Know…	p. 202
As Gods in the Garden	p. 216
Mind Drugs	p. 227
The Real Science Fiction
The Last Lethal Disease	p. 249
Very Small Legos	p. 260
Dangerous Company	p. 275
All in Your Mind	p. 281
The Final Frontier	p. 293
Interesting Times	p. 307
Notes	p. 323
Bibliography	p. 341
Index	p. 347
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