Books

“The Art of the Long View: Planning for the Future in an Uncertain World,” by Peter Schwartz.

The most accessible primer on how to think rationally, systematically and strategically about a future you cannot predict – through scenario planning. “Prevail” is a scenario arrived at through this method.

“Alone Together: Why We Expect More From Technology and Less From Each Other,” by Sherry Turkle.

A humanistic view of emerging technology from the renowned MIT sociologist. It’s about love (and robots.) And something of a mea culpa about her earlier techno enthusiasms.

“Here Comes Everybody: The Power of Organizing Without Organizations” by Clay Shirky.

A very readable look at bottom-up flock-like human networks, and how they are changing the way we get things done in a Prevail-ish fashion, by a long-time Internet seer.

“You Are Not a Gadget: A Manifesto” by Jaron Lanier

A sane and spirited critique of Internet dogma about online collectivism and “the wisdom of crowds,” championing the importance and uniqueness of the individual voice against the “hive mind,” by the father of virtual reality.

“Radical Evolution: The Promise and Peril of Enhancing Our Minds, Our Bodies – And What It Means to Be Human” by Joel Garreau

The book about the future of human nature in the face of exponentially increasing technological change in which the “Prevail” scenario was first and most fully laid out, by the director of The Prevail Project.

“Power and Love: A Theory and Practice of Social Change,” by Adam Kahane

“Power without love is reckless and abusive, and love without power is sentimental and anemic,” said Martin Luther King Jr. The trick is to combine these two forces, explains this master analyst of extreme social discord.

“Massive Change,” by Bruce Mau, et al

“How to design the world” – a radically hopeful vision by the the revolutionary industrial designer and his ream.

“Intervention: Confronting the Real Risks of Genetic Engineering and Life on a Biotech Planet” by Denise Caruso

A thoughtful and imaginative look at alternative means of managing the risks of ever-more-rapid innovation such as biotech, from a long-time observer of emerging technologies.

“The Art of Game Design: A Book of Lenses,” by Jesse Schell

A remarkably in-depth, thoughtful yet accessible look at the psychology of creating compelling games – including serious games that attack social problems – by the former chair of the International Game Developer’s Association.

“The Power of Pull: How Small Moves, Smartly Made, Can Set Big Things in Motion,” by John Hagel III, John Seely Brown, and Lang Davison

If the world is in a fundamental shift of the rules, institutions must draw ideas and people from the edge to change the practices of the core, rather than the reverse. An argument for passionate people, in a time of uncertainty, to connect up.