Human Frontiers: The Future of Big Ideas in an Age of Small Thinking

Why has the flow of big, world-changing ideas slowed down? A provocative look at what happens next at the frontiers of human knowledge. The history of humanity is the history of big ideas that expand our frontiers--from the wheel to space flight, cave painting to the massively multiplayer game, monotheistic religion to quantum theory. And yet for the past few decades, apart from a rush of new gadgets and the explosion of digital technology, world-changing ideas have been harder to come by. Since the 1970s, big ideas have happened incrementally--recycled, focused in narrow bands of innovation. In this provocative book, Michael Bhaskar looks at why the flow of big, world-changing ideas has slowed, and what this means for the future. Bhaskar argues that the challenge at the frontiers of knowledge has arisen not because we are unimaginative and bad at realizing big ideas but because we have already pushed so far. If we compare the world of our great-great-great-grandparents to ours today, we can see how a series of transformative ideas revolutionized almost everything in just a century and a half. But recently, because of short-termism, risk aversion, and fractious decision making, we have built a cautious, unimaginative world. Bhaskar shows how we can start to expand the frontier again by thinking big--embarking on the next Universal Declaration of Human Rightsor Apollo mission--and embracing change.

History

Bhaskar, Michael

Historical Study & Educational Resources

The MIT Press

Why has the flow of big, world-changing ideas slowed down? A provocative look at what happens next at the frontiers of human knowledge.\nThe history of humanity is the history of big ideas that expand our frontiers—from the wheel to space flight, cave painting to the massively multiplayer game, monotheistic religion to quantum theory. And yet for the past few decades, apart from a rush of new gadgets and the explosion of digital technology, world-changing ideas have been harder to come by. Since the 1970s, big ideas have happened incrementally—recycled, focused in narrow bands of innovation. In this provocative book, Michael Bhaskar looks at why the flow of big, world-changing ideas has slowed, and what this means for the future.\nBhaskar argues that the challenge at the frontiers of knowledge has arisen not because we are unimaginative and bad at realizing big ideas but because we have already pushed so far. If we compare the world of our great-great-great-grandparents to ours today, we can see how a series of transformative ideas revolutionized almost everything in just a century and a half. But recently, because of short-termism, risk aversion, and fractious decision making, we have built a cautious, unimaginative world. Bhaskar shows how we can start to expand the frontier again by thinking big—embarking on the next Universal Declaration of Human Rights or Apollo mission—and embracing change.

Curation: The Power of Selection in a World of Excess

'A terrific and important book . . . it's a great, fresh take on how the 21st century is transforming the way we select everything from food to music' David Bodanis, author of E=MC2
In the past two years humanity has produced more data than the rest of human history combined. We carry a library of data in our pockets, accessible at any second. We have more information and more goods at our disposal than we know what to do with. There is no longer any competitive advantage in creating more information. Today, value lies in curation: selecting, finding and cutting down to show what really matters.
Curation reveals how a little-used word from the world of museums became a crucial and at times controversial strategy for the twenty-first century. Today's most successful companies - Apple, Netflix, Amazon - have used curation to power their growth, by offering customers more tailored and appropriate choices.
Curation answers the question of how we can live and prosper in an age of information overload. In the context of excess, it is not only a sound business strategy, but a way to make sense of the world.

Curation: The power of selection in a world of excess

Biographies & Memoirs

Piatkus

This ground-breaking study, the first of its kind, outlines a theory of publishing that allows publishing houses to focus on their core competencies in times of crisis. Tracing the history of publishing from the press works of fifteenth-century Germany to twenty-first-century Silicon Valley, via Venice, Beijing, Paris and London, and fusing media theory and business experience, ‘The Content Machine’ offers a new understanding of content, publishing and technology, and defiantly answers those who contend that publishing has no future in a digital age.

The Content Machine: Towards a Theory of Publishing from the Printing Press to the Digital Network (Anthem Publishing Studies)

Politics & Social Sciences

Social Sciences

Anthem Press

Nunca en la historia ha existido un momento más importante para la creación y la transmisión de conocimiento. Por un lado, las tecnologías de la comunicación posibilitan transformaciones antes inimaginables, que el mundo del libro y la edición aprovechan para hacer lo que mejor saben: situarse a la cabeza de las innovaciones. Por otro lado, jamás ha habido una proliferación equiparable de estudios y análisis sobre la edición y el libro en todas sus formas, lo que nos permite reflexionar sobre el modo en que se produce esta revolución para la que no existen precedentes. Esta obra es el mejor ejemplo de dicha reflexión. Desde distintos puntos de vista, desde diversas disciplinas y con la mayor riqueza y capacidad de disección se explica qué hacen los hoy editores, qué valor supone su actividad, y cuál es la dimensión cultural y social que hace que el mundo del libro y la edición tenga un perfil propio y una capacidad real de esclarecer y transformar la realidad en que vivimos. Los fundamentos del libro y la edición es una obra colaborativa de académicos y representantes de la industria editorial y librera, que aborda cuestiones urgentes como las complejidades de la industria, los desafíos de la lectura y la educación, los mercados globales y las grandes diferencias regionales, la propiedad intelectual y los derechos de autor, la responsabilidad social de las editoriales o las relaciones de la industria de la edición con otros medios de comunicación y entretenimiento, y las siempre cambiantes tecnologías. Los libros nunca están solos. Forman parte de colecciones, conviven en los estantes de las librerías y bibliotecas, y conversan con otras obras a través de sus lectores y lectoras. En este caso, Los fundamentos del libro y la edición está en buena compañía: la colección Tipos Móviles es el entorno natural para que este volumen dialogue con otros textos que también hablan de libros, editores y librerías.

Los fundamentos del libro y la edición: Manual para este siglo XXI

Reference

Eve, Martin Paul

McCleery, Alistair

Murray, Simone

Thompson, John B.

Hall, Frania

Greco, Albert N.

Baverstock, Alison

Owen, Lynette

Phillips, Angus

Oakes, John

Luna, Paul

Van Der Weel, Adriaan

Sundara Rajan, Mira T.

Le Roux, Elizabeth

Scolari, Carlos A.

Kovač, Miha

Wischenbart, Rüdiger

Rayner, Samantha J.

Maxwell, John W.

Lippincott, Sarah Kalikman

Holzman, Alex

Thomas, Niels Peter

Writing, Research & Publishing Guides

Trama Editorial, S.L.

La ola que viene: Tecnología, poder y el gran dilema del siglo XXI / The Coming Wave: Technology, Power, and the Twenty-first Century's Greatest Dilemma (Spanish Edition)

Computers & Technology

Suleyman, Mustafa

Computer Science

Debate

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Books by Bhaskar, Michael