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A stirring exploration of the ways we think about the future from pioneering creative leader Nick Foster
‘Rigorous, rationally optimistic and ultimately empowering’ OLIVER BURKEMAN
‘A deeply-considered - and funny - treatise on complacency’ ALEX McDOWELL
‘Essential’ DAVID EAGLEMAN
‘A rare and wondrous thing’ STEPHEN FRY
As the tempo of change accelerates beyond anything our ancestors could have imagined, the ability to think clearly about what lies ahead has never been more important – yet we remain remarkably bad at it.
So how might we think about the future with greater rigour?
Nick Foster is one of very few people to have built a career considering this question, and in this book he’s written an invaluable guide for the rest of us. From the Could of excitable, science fiction utopianism and the Should of data-driven, dogmatic certainty, to the Might of scenario planning and the Don’t of fear-driven risk avoidance, Foster explores how humanity has grappled with the concept of the future throughout history, tracing the emergence of distinct schools of thought and exploring the virtues, blind spots and inevitable shortcomings of each.
Could Should Might Don’t resists making cocksure prophecies and bombastic predictions, instead encouraging us to create more balanced, detailed and truthful versions of the future, so that we might improve what we leave behind for those who might follow.
“This is the book on the future we’d been waiting for – an impassioned argument for replacing lazy certainties and fearful fantasies with a rigorous, rationally optimistic and ultimately empowering stance towards what might be coming next”
Oliver Burkeman
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“I couldn’t put down this brilliant, eye-opening work - it’s just the kind we need at the moment. Foster has spent a lifetime exploring tomorrows, and his message is clear: serious thinking about the future is essential if we hope to shape it rather than be blindsided by it”
David Eagleman
“It’s a rare and wondrous thing to read someone who can bring potential futures to life without being stuck in retreads of yet more takes on AI and robotics. Nick Foster’s Could, Should Might, Don’t blows a draught of fresh and thrilling air through a genre that has lately become stale, repetitive and unproductive. It’s the kind of book you keep dropping down to your lap as you look up and wonder”
Stephen Fry
“Playful and exploratory”
observer
“A deeply-considered - and funny - treatise on complacency. A clear-eyed, attentive and intelligent book about the dangers of complacency as we take on our ever more complicated futures”
Alex Mcdowell
Nick Foster
Nick Foster is a designer and writer based in Oakland, California. He has spent his career exploring the future for globally renowned technology companies including Apple, Google, Nokia, Sony and Dyson. Despite the ambitious nature of much of Nick’s work, he’s known for his down-to-earth, everyday and occasionally irreverent approach to the future, and in 2021 he was awarded the title ‘Royal Designer for Industry’ in recognition of his significant contributions to the discipline, the highest professional accolade for a British designer. Nick was born in Derby – the birthplace of the Industrial Revolution, and a city once synonymous with innovation, manufacturing and technology. He earned his Masters degree from the Royal College of Art, and in 2018 he was made a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts.
NickFosterRDI.com | @nickfoster_rdi