A History of the Future in 100 Objects

by Adrian Hon

What are the 100 objects that future historians will pick to define our 21st century? A javelin thrown by an 'enhanced' Paralympian, far further than any normal human? Virtual reality interrogation equipment used by police forces? The world's most expensive glass of water, mined from the moons of Mars? Or desire modification drugs that fuel a brand new religion?

A History of the Future in 100 Objects describes a hundred slices of the future of everything, spanning politics, technology, art, religion, and entertainment. Some of the objects are described by future historians; others through found materials, short stories, or dialogues. All come from a very real future.

Genres: Science Fiction, Fiction

ebook

First published August 31, 2013

About the author

Adrian Hon is co-founder and CEO at Six to Start, creators of gamelike stories and story-like games including the world's bestselling smartphone fitness game, Zombies, Run!, with ten million players. Six to Start's clients have included Disney, the BBC, Channel 4, and Penguin, and the company has won multiple awards including Best of Show at SXSW.

Adrian is author of A History of the Future in 100 Objects, and has written a column about technology for the Telegraph. He originally trained as a neuroscientist at Cambridge, UCSD, and Oxford.

Follow me on Mastodon.

Reviews

[Brian Enigma · Rating 4 out of 5]

The hundred bite-sized chapters were both a blessing and a curse. The ones I found truly interesting felt too short. Occasionally, I'd get a few in a row that I wasn't too into, making it more difficult than it should have been to pick up the book the next day once I'd set it down for the night. Many chapters dovetail into others, sometimes subtly, sometimes it is more blatant, but they weave a vivid future world. It's definitely a high recommendation if you like the “science” parts of scifi.

Addendum: Upon reflecting on the world this paints, I now realize after the fact that it's a very “cyberpunk” world, with AIs and neural-computer interfaces and freelancers and such, without that term “cyberpunk” (or any of its overdone tropes) popping into my perception as I traversed the chapters. It took stepping back and reflecting to really notice this, and — by my standards — that's a good thing.

[Kara · Rating 4 out of 5]

Published in 2013, the book is sadly already getting dated, since a lot of objects at the beginning are from 2014-2016. I found that surprising – there was the obvious low hanging fruit of starting with real objects invited 2000-2012 and then deftly merging into the hypothetical future (a la the opening credits of Enterprise), with perhaps not too much time spent on the 30-seconds from now section.

Still, the writing style is excellent – an absolute spot on replication of your typical history book. You could practically hear David Starkey narrating the text.

There is some great speculation here on what the 21st century might bring, a lot of sounding quite plausible as Hon clearly is on top of current events, as well as the kind of history that repeats itself.

[Fábio Fernandes · Rating 4 out of 5]

I liked this book a lot, but it failed to get me glued to a chair for more than half an hour a day. The reason might have been its "encyclopedia-entry" format, but I don't think that's exactly the issue here - Hon does his best to keep the attention of the reader, but some entries are more interesting than others (as it happens in a "real", "normal" encyclopedia). I also would have liked to see a more integrated universe, something he tried to do but ultimated failed, IMO. It's a good thing he called his book "A History of the Future", because every time someone asked me about what I was reading, I kept answering "A History of the 21st Century", and that wasn't too far off the mark, was it? I would have liked to see entries going until the early 22nd Century - but that's only me. I enjoyed reading it after all.

[Greg Marra · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wonderful collection.

A great set of interwoven stories imagining what the future will be like. Explored lots of current themes like work, ai, virtual reality, and the future of philosophy. A fun read that can be slowly consumed one story at a time.

[Ben · Rating 4 out of 5]

Incredible concept, OK execution.

[Ellen · Rating 4 out of 5]

I took three months to read this book, as it works really well being read a few scenarios at a time. This is a work of fiction, set up as one hundred scenarios about the future.Each chapter explores a different idea, although there are some linkages through the entire book. Different styles are used in the chapters, some taking the form of alledged interviews, others first hand reporting, and some statistics. Some of the chaoters have very interesting ideas and challenges to consider. This may be of interest to people exploring ideas about the future. It was an engaging read.

[Fred Rose · Rating 3 out of 5]

An ambitious effort. It's hard to read right through, more of a "pick and up and read occasionally" kind of book. Some of the scenarios are brilliant but it's hard to maintain that consistency for 100. It's a perspective of the next 75 years so has some interesting projections. Take a look at the web site for many of them. It's a good book to stimulate your thinking.

[Delyan Kratunov · Rating 2 out of 5]

There are some very plausible and insightful ideas but any good thought suffers from poor story telling.

The encyclopedic writing style is dry, forced and very contrived. There's nothing to empathize with, no story to keep pulling you in, just.. words. Some of the words express interesting ideas but that hardly compensates for their bland wordness.

[Rob · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is another one that had me wishing for half-star ratings, I'd probably do 3.5 — the good parts of this were so brilliant and insightful, into both the nature of technology and plain old human nature. A few of the chapters, though, lost me completely. But I bumped it up to four stars primarily for completely upturning my understanding of what science fiction can be.

[Dinah · Rating 5 out of 5]

Clever & thought-provoking.

Very much enjoyed this plausible speculative leap into the future (& its format which demonstrates that the author loves the BBC/British Museum's History of the World in 100 Objects as much as I).

[Josh · Rating 4 out of 5]

A lot of good concepts. Not every one is a hit, but the format keeps it short and fast moving. Really liked the one about historical preservation of the first space hotel and the super emoji "glyphish." The overall message is that Ben in the future, everything gets old and we keep moving.

[Nick · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book should be required reading in H.S. history classes as the past informs the future. From the year 2082, a look back at the most notable events and inventions from the 21st century. Highly recommended for scifi fans and really pretty much anyone interested in the future.

[Matthijs · Rating 5 out of 5]

The kind of book I wish I would be able to write. Excellent.

[John · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting read.

This was an interesting read, and most of it seemed plausible. The furure seems kess distopian than I would expect, though it ends on something of a sad note.

[Mills College Library]

Fiction H769h 2013

[Kevin Fowler · Rating 4 out of 5]

An interesting premise, but requires you to suspend your disbelief quite often.

[Zara Black · Rating 5 out of 5]

Good

The fact I can see you soon as possible and to get my nails are you doing it wrong that I'm

[Sam Aylward · Rating 5 out of 5]

Really interesting. Everything seemed so possible. If this is the future I cant wait to live in it.