Book Club for the 21st Century

A View of the Year 3000, by: Dr. Michael. H Hart

Dr. Michael Hart presents a unique futuristic vision of what is to become of our precarious world whose fate is essentially in the hands of society. This book speculates about the scientific discoveries as well as the political and social transformations that may occur during the coming millennia. This is achieved by presenting a list of the 100 individuals who have had the most profound impact on world and on the everyday lives of humans. The book includes a historical chart (indicating the main occurrences of the past and predicted future) and a list of honorees (and their accomplishments). The book essentially consists of short biographies of 100 people, describing each person’s accomplishments and the importance of their existence in the world. They are ranked in order of their influence. Out of the 55 entries in the book, 45 of them are people from the past and present who made a difference in the world, ranging from the greats of religious and philosophical figures such as Jesus Christ and Confucius, to pioneers and presidents such as Christopher Columbus and George Washington. The topics included cover a broad range from medical advances like a ‘cancer vaccine developed by Sue Ellen Green’ , to meteorology like ‘controlling the weather developed by Mika Kivikoski’1.

He focuses on systems in society that he considers will undergo drastic alterations in the coming millennia. Some of these include the systems of education and retirement. In regards to the education system, he gives the impression that the duration of study has great ties to great leaders, because the majority of the people mentioned in the book have attended university for a prolonged duration. Nowadays, highly educated people attend universities for many years to earn a doctorate. Surprisingly, Dr. Hart describes his vision of schooling to be of a much more lengthy process, as he perceives that it takes decades or so to complete a similar caliber of education. His concept of ‘academic utopia ’ in the future consists of 3 main stages: long schooling, intellectual work and research and perpetual retirement. This may seem paradoxical regarding the fact that in our present day and age, we are surrounded with innumerable digital resources of information that hardcover books will see their inevitable demise. However, e-books will be its successor, so the word “book” will still be used in the digital vocabulary. In regards to the retirement system, many people work on average between 20 and 50 years before they choose to retire. However, in Dr. Hart’s eyes, he visualizes that the most influential individuals after the 21st century ‘to attend school for as long as they work1’ (work and study simultaneously).

An extraordinarily intriguing concept of Hart’s prognostication is that the majority of the most influential individuals born after the 21st century are from Asian or African nations. Only a handful of them come from Western Europe and only few of them are born outside the planet Earth.

Another breakthrough feature in the book is the idea of brainwashing and direct downloading of information from computers into the brain. This concept ties in with the duration of study, because logically the duration of study should be much shorter if one can have an information database in their brains. Dr Hart explains this paradox by mentioning that “downloading of information provides only the knowledge of facts, but no understanding1.” Despite his belief in the imminent emergence of brainwashing and that it will be integrated into our developmental stages of learning, he views this ideology as irrelative to the duration of education because it provides no significant benefits to an individual to know facts without being able to apply it nor understand its underlying concept.

An interesting observation I made was that Dr. Hart has very low expectations regarding the impact of artificial intelligence (A.I.) to society and in his futuristic world, it is legally banned. Also, he does not see computers having a greater effect on society than they already have. The overall effect that computers had on society when they were first introduced and phased into many businesses and homes will never be comparable, though he acknowledges minor changes in computers will still have a summative effect on society’s driving force—the people. Interestingly, the occurrences of sex changes thrive in Dr. Hart’s futuristic world, possibly hinting that society will make a transition to being more open towards sexuality.

A possibility that cannot be discounted is that mankind will self-destruct before we reach the next millennia.

This book differs from others as it is partly fiction and non-fiction. It is fiction in the sense that some of the individuals actually existed and have been recognized for their accomplishments. It is non-fiction in the sense that many of the influential people obviously never existed. But some concepts are a balance of both as some of the concepts exist but have not been perfected (yet). Another way that this book sticks out from the others is that it predicts monumental breakthroughs that are we presently believe are inevitable. For example, a cancer vaccine is inevitable in many of our eyes and it’s just a matter of time. Basically, it paves the remaining path to discovery while acknowledging the present advancements and shows its effect on society in a futuristic manner.

It is essential to note that though he does not specifically promise any of these concepts to actually be realized or affect society, he ardently believes in his predictions and their imminence and inevitability.

The book’s significance or use to 21st century professionals, leaders, societies and the world highly depends on whether they are optimistic or pessimistic towards the outlook of our future. If they are optimistic, they may agree with much or little of Dr. Hart’s anticipation of concepts that will revamp our society, such as the world will rely more on the Southeast continents to concoct life-altering vaccines, promising benefits to our lifestyles and that computers have reached their maximum overall influence on the world, but with minor altercations. If they are pessimistic, they would likely, but not exclusively, believe the possibility aforementioned regarding self-destruction and thus would exploit and take advantage of this ideology by disregarding good ethics and morals of life in return for a monetary and personal gain at the expense of others.

The main message for managers from this book is that no matter what sector you are a part of, the upcoming breakthroughs, whether scientific or commercial, will change the way of life, and in turn the way things are done.