Foresight

by Lawrence W. Sherman (Editor), David Allan Feller (Editor)

Overview

How do attempts to foresee the future actually change it? For thousands of years, humans have called upon foresight to shape their own actions in order to adapt and survive; as Charles Darwin revealed in his theory of natural selection, the capacity to do just that is key to the origin of species. The uses of foresight, however, can also be applied to help us further our understanding across a variety of realms in everything from warfare, journalism and music, to ancient civilizations, space weather and science. In a thought-provoking new addition to the Darwin College Lecture Series, eight distinguished authors each present an essay from their area of expertise devoted to the theme of 'foresight'. This provocative read reveals foresight as a process that can be identified across all areas of human endeavour, an art which can not only predict the future, but make it anything but inevitable.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781107512368
Publisher:	Cambridge University Press
Publication date:	10/13/2016
Series:	Darwin College Lectures , #26
Pages:	192
Product dimensions:	6.97(w) x 10.00(h) x 0.39(d)

About the Author

Lawrence W. Sherman is a world-renowned criminologist whose work on the prediction of crime has revolutionized policing and criminal justice. As the founder of the new field of 'evidence-based policing', he has led the creation of new learned societies for that field in Britain, USA, Canada, Australia and New Zealand. He has lectured on the use of prediction and prevention of crime to governments in over thirty countries, and is widely known for his proposals to base better prevention of violence on better prediction, from the under-identified 'hot spots' of crime to the over-prediction of serious offenders.

David Allan Feller holds a PhD in the History and Philosophy of Science from the University of Cambridge, as well as a law degree from Georgetown University Law Center in Washington DC. His work at the University of Cambridge and the University of Manchester, particularly regarding the use of dogs as models in evolutionary and genetic science, has created new discussion in both Darwinian studies and concepts of cultural influences in biology. Most recently, he has lectured in Law and Science at the University of Cambridge, discussing how law and science combine to guide notions of the future.

Table of Contents

1. Foresight in ancient civilisations Geoffrey Lloyd; 2. Foresight in journalism Bridget Kendall; 3. Foresight and fiction Robert Sawyer; 4. Foresight in scientific method Hasok Chang; 5. Foresight in music Nicholas Cook; 6. Foreseeing in space weather Jim Wild; 7. Foresight and self-control Terrie Moffitt; 8. Foresight in Ancient Mesopotamia Francesca Rochberg; Index.