Bruce Sterling has written three non-fiction books. This is his second and was published in 2003. It's a multilayered work, with seven stages (chapters) based on William Shakespeare's As You Like It, in which Jaques's monologue outlines the seven ages of man as infant, schoolboy, lover, soldier, justice, and at the end of life. Through each stage, Sterling looks at current (at the time) research and runs it out 50 years, to the middle of our century, attempting to paint a picture of how our lives will change.

Though the work is dated at this point, nearly 12 years old, I believe this is the most important futurist work I've ever read for my interests. Not for the insights Sterling makes about the future, but how he approaches his explanations. Each chapter offers a thorough view of the current context, an outline of the need, and then begins to present the changes on our environment.

Anyone interested in the future should take some time to read this. His process alone is a workshop on how to approach conceptualizing and presenting change over time.