Happy New Year, everyone!

Continuing this week's theme about the future, fellow blogger, published author, and futurist David Houle is coming out with a new book this month titled [Entering the Shift Age]. This is a follow-on to his book, [The Shift Age].

Since this book cites IBM studies explicitly, his PR department asked me to review it. If you are an aspiring author that has a book you want me review, and it relates to the topics my blog covers like Cloud, Big Data, storage, and the explosion of information, feel free to send me a copy!

(FTC Disclosure: I work for IBM. I was not paid by anyone to mention this book on my blog. I was provided an "Uncorrected Advanced Copy" of this book at no cost to me for this review. I do not know David Houle personally, have not read any of his prior works, nor have I ever seen him speak at public events. This post is neither a paid nor celebrity endorsement of this author, his book, nor any other books by this author.)

First, let's get a few details out of the way:

Title: Entering the Shift Age, 284 pages
Author: David Houle, futurist
Genre: Non-fiction, trends and predictions Publisher: Sourcebooks, Inc.
Publish date: January 2013

As I mentioned in my post [Historians vs. Futurists], there is only one past, but there are many potential futures. There seems to be as many futurists out there as there are potential futures. I suspect not everyone will agree with all that David has written. However, this reminds me of one of my favorite quotes:

"When two futurists always agree, one is no longer necessary." -- old Italian adage

In his book, David asks a series of thought-provoking questions, then answers them with his views and opinions on how the future will roll out:

• Is humanity now entering a new age that is different than the Information age?
• If so, what should we call it?
• Which forces are driving this new age?
• How will this impact various aspects and institutions of society?

David feels humanity is indeed entering a new age, which he calls the Shift Age. This is driven by three forces: the shift to globalization of culture and politics, the flow of power and influence to individuals, and the acceleration of electronic connectedness.

In a sense, David is like a hunter-gatherer from the Stone age, hunting down trends and gathering ideas from others. In much the same way my compost brings renewed purpose to the rinds and pits of my fruits and vegetables, David's book does a good job paraphrasing the works of many of today's leading futurists.

David predicts the decade we are now in, the 2010's, will mark the end of the Information age, a transition period to this new era, that will lead to transformations in government, education, health, technology, and energy.

Over the past two weeks, I had time to enjoy a variety of movies. I had seen several whose stories wrapped around key moments of transition.

• "Gone with the Wind", as well as the new offering "Lincoln" from Steven Spielberg. Both are set in the 1860's, the time of the [American Civil War], pitting the Industrial-age forces of the North, against the Agricultural-age economy of the South. This time saw the transition from slavery to freedom.
  
  
• "Doctor Zhivago", set in the time of World War I, on the German-Russian front, as well as the Russian Revolution of 1917, and the resulting Civil War between the Red Guard and the White Army. This saw the transition from a Russian government ruled by Czars, to one ruled by the people through Communism.
  
  
• "Lawrence of Arabia", also set in the time of World War I, but south in Arabia. T. E. Lawrence was able to bring several warring Arab tribes together to defeat the Turks, and was a key figure in the transition to an Arab National Council.

Some might call these completely unexpected [Black Swan] events, while others might feel they are merely fortunate (or misfortunate) sequences of events that led to inevitable social change. Has something happened, or will something happen later this decade, that will drive us to leave the Information Age?

David's previous book, The Shift Age, was published back in 2007, and a lot has happened in the past six years: a global financial melt-down recession; the Arab Spring uprisings in the Middle East; Barack Obama was elected and re-elected; man-made climate change in the form of hurricanes, tsunamis and superstorms hit various parts of the world; brush fires lit up Australia, and BP's Deepwater Horizon oil rig exploded off the Gulf coast, just to name a few.

David's new book reflects the impact of these recent events, from discussions on his [Evolutionshift] blog, to Q&A sessions he has after his public speaking presentations. For those who are not interested in the wide array of topics he covers in this one book, David also offers [a dozen different mini-eBooks] that cover specific topics like [Technology, Energy and Health].

My Rating: Moist and Flaky

Who should read this book: If you are a time-traveler from 1975 that came to this decade to learn all about what your future has in store, but can only select one book to read before you zoom back to your own time period, this would be the book I recommend.

I do not want to imply this is a quick read, or one that you can't put down once you start reading it. Just like you should not gulp down a full bottle of cheap Vodka in one sitting, this book should be read over a series of days, as I did, so that you can mull over in your mind the different points and thoughts he is trying to convey.

technorati tags: IBM, trends, predictions, David Houle, futurist, Shift Age

Tags:  review futurist