“What Future was inspired by the existential challenge of trying to understand today’s tomorrow (or tomorrow’s today) as seen through a wobbling global economy, political upheaval, a society distracted and undermined by its technology, and catastrophic climate change. The trend in science fiction for near-future dystopias is no accident—it is becoming alarmingly difficult to imagine or hope or dream beyond our present. The pieces we’ve brought together here in What Future are some of the best, most interesting, most far-seeing, and most deeply thought essays and articles we’ve found about what the future might look like, how we might think about it, and what it might mean.”

From the editors Torie Bosch and Roy Scranton

What Future

Torie Bosch & Roy Scranton

The future is here and, frankly, it sucks. Without doubt, our culture is at a crossroads. Political strife and economic crises are byproducts of a larger looming challenge, one in which we will have to ask ourselves: now what?

A best-of-the-year anthology, What Future is a collection of long-form journalism and essays published in 2016 that address a wide range of topics crucial to our future, from the environmental and political, to human health and animal rights, to technology and the economy. 

What Future includes writing from world-renowned authors Elizabeth Kolbert and Jeff Vandermeer as well as the scientists, journalists, and philosophers who are proposing the options that lay not just ahead, but beyond, in prestigious magazines and journals such as The Atlantic and The New Yorker. 

Praise for What Future

"A sober, no-holds-barred view of the world that lies ahead... provocative and studded with insights."
—Kirkus Reviews,

"A vital collection of forward-looking writing...The overall tone is worried but optimistic. Don’t look for utopian fantasies here—look for topical, intelligent projections of a realistically better future."
—Publishers Weekly,

"More than simply arming you for an argument with your dangerously stupid uncle who thinks coal is the next big thing, What Future will fire your passion for creating space for humanity (in every sense of the word) in the unyielding universe of reality"
—Dwarf + Giant, Eric Larkin