The case for paring diplomacy back to its essential elements. Stripped of the paraphernalia, what is it really about, and why does it still matter? The essential attributes are now thick skin, an open mind and a smart phone. In next century we will need to deal with equivalent in social development of last 43 centuries: like the change from cave paintings to the atom bomb. We will see the arrival of the digital native; the rebirth of the city state;...

"A pioneering forecaster predicts the trends and technologies that will shape global culture and commerce in the next two decades-a must-read guide for business leaders, entrepreneurs, and anyone looking for an edge. A little more than twenty years ago, the Y2K computer glitch threatened to bring the global economy to its knees. But instead of overnight disruption, humankind slipped into two decades of economic turmoil, ecological angst, and tribalism,...

In the next ten years there will be an unprecedented wealth transfer from the so-called 'baby boomer' generation to the young. Never before will so much money - in housing, land, stocks and cash - be shifted so suddenly from one generation to the next, and never before does the next generation feel so differently about the future of the planet and of capitalism.

"Edge.org presents 125 of today's leading thinkers ... [responding to the question,] 'What game-changing scientific ideas and developments do you expect to live to see?'"--Cover.

In The Accidental Superpower, international strategist Peter Zeihan examines how the hard rules of geography are eroding the American commitment to free trade; how much of the planet is aging into a mass retirement that will enervate markets and capital supplies; and how, against all odds, it is the ever-ravenous American economy that - alone among the developed nations - is rapidly approaching energy independence. Combined, these factors are doing...

The time: not so long from now. The place: AutoAmerica. The land: half under water. The Internet: one part artificial intelligence, one part surveillance technology, and oddly human--even funny. The people: Divided. The angel-fair "Netted" have jobs, and literally occupy the high ground. The "Surplus" live on swampland if they're lucky, on water if they're not. The story: To a Surplus couple--he once a professor, she still a lawyer--is born a Blasian...