Gore/Card/Friedman/Clarke Started It All - Part 3

Richard Clarke also wrote a fictional account of a near-world-war-three in the near future in Breakpoint. The global politics and technological advancements closely follow the trends discussed in Al Gore's and Thomas Friedman's books. Richard Clarke was the counter-terrorism czar whose warnings were ignored prior to 9/11. He has thought about how terrorism may occur in the digital age possibly more deeply and realistically than anyone else.

These four books all went really well together. It was a complete coincidence that I happened on them at the same time. And I recommend them all.

Gore/Card/Friedman/Clarke Started It All - Part 2

Moving from non-fiction to fiction:

The left/right clashes of Al Gore's book are taken one step further by Orson Scott Card's fictional account of a second civil war in the near future in Empire. The first two thirds or so was very realistic; it only became sci-fi in the last third or so, when flying machines and giant exoskeletons showed up for war.

Gore/Card/Friedman/Clarke Started It All - Part 1

I had a series of four books in a row that gave me the idea for this blog. Here's part 1 describing the four.

Al Gore's The Assault on Reason was a great indictment on the current administration's disdain for logic- and evidence-based decision making. Only one part of the book was disappointing: where he discussed how the internet would change the future of information exchange. This is where Thomas Friedman's The World is Flat took over. He showed how the exchange of information and commerce is now astoundingly global. Both are deeply thoughtful analyses of current political and economic trends.