This is a big report from the US National Intelligence Council reviewing the megatrends and “game changers” that set the geopolitical framework for the big choices facing the world.

“The world of 2030 will be radically transformed from our world today. By 2030, no country—whether the US, China, or any other large country—will be a hegemonic power. The empowerment of individuals and diffusion of power among states and from states to informal networks will have a dramatic impact, largely reversing the historic rise of the West since 1750, restoring Asia’s weight in the global economy, and ushering in a new era of “democratization” at the international and domestic level.
In addition to individual empowerment and the diffusion of state power, we believe that two other megatrends will shape our world out to 2030: demographic patterns, especially rapid aging; and growing resource demands which, in the cases of food and water, might lead to scarcities. These trends, which are virtually certain, exist today, but during the next 15-20 years they will gain much greater momentum. Underpinning the megatrends are tectonic shifts—critical changes to key features of our global environment that will affect how the world “works”

This report from 1975 sets out a tough analysis of, and predictions for, the future of democracy in Europe, the US and Japan. Its insights and propositions are timely and apt at a time when similar discussions about the future of democracy are rising.

“The report that follows is not a pessimistic document. Its authors believe that, in a fundamental sense, the democratic systems are viable. They believe, furthermore, that democracies can work provided their publics truly understand the nature of the democratic system, and particularly if they are sensitive to the subtle interrelationships between liberty and responsibility. Their discussion of the “crisis of democracy” is designed to make democracy stronger as it grows and becomes more democratic.”

An unnerving essay about the way in which “surveillance capital” works and the impacts it has on individuals and businesses. The essay grew into a compelling and controversial book

“…Google is ground zero for a wholly new subspecies of capitalism in which profits derive from the unilateral surveillance and modification of human behavior. This is a new surveillance capitalism that is unimaginable outside the inscrutable high velocity circuits of Google’s digital universe, whose signature feature is the Internet and its successors. While the world is riveted by the showdown between Apple and the FBI, the real truth is that the surveillance capabilities being developed by surveillance capitalists are the envy of every state security agency. What are the secrets of this new capitalism, how
do they produce such staggering wealth, and how can we protect ourselves from its invasive power?”