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Featured Selections: Space, Technology and the Future
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The New Economy: What It Is, How It Happened, and Why It Is Likely to Last
by Roger E. Alcaly (2003)
The term "new economy" is shorthand for a wide range of changes in business and financial practices resulting from innovations in computers and communication. Before the Internet crash of 2000, many people argued the new economy was already here and would forever banish unpleasant things like recessions, inflation, stock market declines, boring jobs, bad customer service and authoritarian governments. New York Review of Books contributor Alcaly considers previous cycles of technological change and economic reaction, such as the invention of steam power and later electric power, the development of the internal combustion engine and adoption of mass production techniques in automobiles and steel. He argues that such changes do create new economies that are qualitatively better than the economies they replace, but more slowly and erratically than people expect at the time and with bigger problems along the way. |
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Space: The Next Business Frontier
by Lou Dobbs
"S-commerce" is now a $100-billion business, CNN's Lou Dobbs claims, with huge growth potential. Satellites generate the majority of space revenues now, but Dobbs sees giant opportunities for such industries as manufacturing, energy generation and even tourism. In eight neat chapters, he discusses the economic upsides to space as a new business along with the possible pitfalls, investing in space, NASA, satellites (including high-speed Internet access and live public and private broadcast) and specifics like combustion and launch stations. He ends with a list of "the top 100 players in the space business game." While his arguments many not convince all skeptics about the upside for space business, they are persuasive enough to show that Dobbs wasn't completely starry-eyed when he shot off Space.com. |
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Telecosm: How Infinite Bandwidth Will Revolutionize Our World
by George Gilder
As one of the nation's premier analysts of technology-driven enterprises, Gilder makes his predictions based on a thorough knowledge of how scientific breakthroughs are rewriting the ancient economic rules of scarcity and abundance. The wizards of fiber optics and wireless transmission are conjuring up an undreamed-of plentitude of electromagnetic spectrum bandwidth, kindling what Gilder dubs a "telecosmic revolution," changing the world even more dramatically than computers did before it. |
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Generations: The History of America's Future, 1584-2069
by Neil Howe and William Strauss
Hailed by national leaders as politically diverse as former Vice President Al Gore and former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, Generations has been heralded by reviewers as a brilliant, if somewhat unsettling, reassessment of where America is heading.
William Strauss and Neil Howe posit the history of America as a succession of generational biographies, beginning in 1584 and encompassing every-one through the children of today. Their bold theory is that each generation belongs to one of four types, and that these types repeat sequentially in a fixed pattern. The vision of Generations allows us to plot a recurring cycle in American history -- a cycle of spiritual awakenings and secular crises -- from the founding colonists through the present day and well into this millenium.
Generations is at once a refreshing historical narrative and a thrilling intuitive leap that reorders not only our history books but also our expectations for the twenty-first century.
Read Dr. Jack Wheeler's article "The Curse of the Xers".
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The PayPal Wars: Battles With eBay, the Media, the Mafia, and the Rest of Planet Earth
by Eric M. Jackson
FROM THE INSIDE FLAP: "PayPal was truly the little dot-com that could: it survived not only the tsunami of the tech bust but the machinations of the world's largest banks and even governments to become the first successful post-9/11 tech IPO. Eric Jackson was one of the four or five people most responsible for that success, and his narrative skills are clearly equally impressive. This is a must-read."
-- TheVanguard.Org Chairman Rod D. Martin |
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Mining the Sky: Untold Riches From the Asteroids, Comets and Planets
by John S. Lewis
In this book, noted planetary scientist John S.Lewis (Codirector, NASA, U. of Arizona Space Engineering Research Center) reveals that vast quantities of important resources are locked away--for now--in the asteroids, comets, and planets of our own solar system. He also makes a convincing case for balancing research and economic necessity by proposing strategies to extract oxygen from lunar rocks, harness the natural hydrogen and helium of the gas giant planets to power fusion reactors, and create space vehicles from hollowed out asteroids. He argues that space exploration is not just an expensive hobby but a source of tremendous business opportunity, as well as a chance to clean up Earth's environment once and for all. |
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It's Getting Better All the Time : 100 Greatest Trends of the Last 100 Years
by Stephen Moore and Julian Lincoln Simon
How has the United States changed over the past century? Is life truly better now than it was in the past? Using detailed research, Moore (Wall Street Journal Senior Economics Writer, Founding President of The Club for Growth, TheVanguard.Org board member) and the late Simon (Cato Senior Fellow and famed "doom-slayer") argue that for the most part people entering the new millennium are dramatically better off than their parents, grandparents, and great-grandparents. The areas covered include health, economics, race relations, safety, environmental issues, and women's rights. A large number of charts and graphs, well complemented by an extensive index and a bibliography, shows the positive changes that have taken place over the past 100 years. Readers will appreciate the information provided by these colorful graphics, which readily allow for additional research on subjects of interest. |
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The Hydrogen Economy
by Jeremy Rifkin
The road to global security," writes Jeremy Rifkin, "lies in lessening our dependence on Middle East oil and making sure that all people on Earth have access to the energy they need to sustain life. Weaning the world off oil and turning it toward hydrogen is a promissory note for a safer world." Rifkin's international bestseller The Hydrogen Economy presents the clearest, most comprehensive case for moving ourselves away from the destructive and waning years of the oil era toward a new kind of energy regime. Hydrogen-one of the most abundant substances in the universe-holds the key, Rifkin argues, to a cleaner, safer, and more sustainable world. |
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