2081: A Hopeful View of the Human Future

Very well-written book, especially for it's genre: too many futurist books are written by scientists who get bogged down in technical details to worry about how the book will "flow" for the reader. O'Neill avoids this by breaking up the chapters into halves; the first half of each is devoted to a first-hand narrative given by a fictional visitor from an distant space colony to 2081's Earth. This helps to introduce the reader to the innovations predicted by presenting them through the eyes of someone experiencing the future Earth for the first time. The second half of each chapter O'Neill uses to explain how the changes shown in the first half are a logical extension of our present-day world. There is also an excellent introductory chapter which reviews the history of predictions of the future, and how well others have done. The tone of the book is consistently optimistic without getting dreamy-eyed, which makes it all the more remarkable for having being published during a period where futurism was largely dominated by Malthusian doomsayers. Indeed, "2081" could be seen as a testimony of faith in the future of mankind, and is a fine legacy for the Nobel Prize-winning physicist. Top recommendation.