The Shift Age is about humanity's new ere. As the Information Age gives way to the Shift Age, we are entering a time of
transformation and change that offers both great risk and incredible opportunity. Originally published in 2007, David Houle
identifies and explains the dynamics and forces that already have reshaped and will continue to reshape our world for the next
20 years. He comments from the front lines of the Shift Age on issues and topics that affect our lives. We have entered the final,
global stage of humanity's cultural, social and economic evolutionary journey: The Shift Age
Table of Contents:
CONTENTS
Preface
Introduction
Part I: The Shift Age
Chapter 1: The Shift Age in Context
Chapter 2: The Threshold Decades
Chapter 3: The Shift Age
Part II: Commentary on the Shift Age
Introduction
Chapter 4: Going Global
Exit Greenspan, the Economist's Rock Star
The World Cup Points the Way
Made in China
It Is All Global
Debt, Credit, Obligations, and Trust
Damaged Brands
Chapter 5: Technology and Transformation
Sometimes It Is Easy to See the Future: A Futuristic Pocketful
Happy Birthday, PC!
Sometimes It Is Easy to See the Future: Head to the Beach for a Day at Work
Always Faster
Sometimes It Is Easy to See the Future: Is It Real?
Cell Phones Are Transformative
The Future of Video Games
Technology Advances, Privacy Declines
Berkeley and Nanotechnology
A Cell Phone Milestone
Moore's Law Lives On
The iPhone Starts It Up Again
A New Cell Phone Milestone
Chapter 6: Energy and Global Warming
Solving the Energy Problem and Saving Ourselves
Europe All the Time, New York When It Needs To
A Walk on the Beach
Once Again It Starts in California
National Defense Becomes Green
Make Global Warming an Economic Issue
Three Cheers for Titanium Dioxide
A Man Who Is Working to Save the Planet
We Have Only Just Begun
Change the Language, Change the Thinking
Sputnik: 50 Years Later
Chapter 7: Our Automotive Future
An Electric Car
A Man Who Wants to Change the World
The Quest for the Perfect Battery: Part One
The Quest for the Perfect Battery: Part Two
The Compressed Air Car
Chapter 8: A Time of Disintermediation
Disintermediation: A Buzzword to Bring Back
Disintermediation: A Deeper Look
Watching Video, Selling a Home, Buying Insurance
The Political Party in the United States: A Candidate for Disintermediation?
Guilty Pleasures
Disintermediation Is Rarely Partial
Say Good-bye to the 6-percent Commission Rule
Chapter 9: Intellectual Property, the Wealth of the Shift Age
Intellectual Property Is the New Valuation
A Historic Day for Intellectual Property
The Financial Exchange for the 21st Century
The Merchant Banker of Intellectual Capital
Chapter 10: The Morphing of Media
Broadband...Finally!
High-touch Media
A Media Milestone
Three Deaths of a Media Icon
A Book Convention: In the Year 2025
Chapter 11: Culture at the Beginning of the Shift Age
In the Future, Let's All Get Caught Napping
Coffee and Caffeine
The New Coffee Culture and Why It Reflects Our Changing World
New and Threatening Becomes Acceptable and Mainstream
Water
Water Redux
A 20th-century Habit
Time Capsule for 2057
Expanding the Definition of Life
A Happiness Index
2007: Looking Back and Looking Forward
Notes
Acknowledgments
About the Author
About the Author :
David Houle is a futurist, strategist and keynote speaker. Houle is consistently ranked as one of the top futurists and futurist keynote speakers on the major search engines. Houle won a Speaker of the Year award from Vistage International, the leading organization of CEOs in the world. He is often called the "CEOs' futurist" having spoken to or advised 2,000+ CEOs and business owners in the past four years.
Review :
""Fills a useful niche between the technical emphasis of Kurzweil and the societal aspects of Toffler."
--Dennis Bushnell, Scientist
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""An enlightening view of the muck and miracle of it all. I highly recommend this eye-opening book."
-Susan Jeffers, Ph.D., Author of Feel the Fear and Do It Anyway and Embracing Uncertainty
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""A must-read for anyone who is interested in where humanity is headed in coming generations. This book provides an overview of how our progeny will live, work, and play in coming decades. If you want to learn more about what the future of our daily lives portends, read The Shift Age."
-Bob Citron, Co-founder and Executive Director, Foundation for the Future
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""The Shift Age lifts us out of the rapids of techno-change and helps us see the course of the river we've been rafting in."
-Howard Bloom, Author of The Lucifer Principle: A Scientific Expedition into the Forces of History and Global Brain: The Evolution of Mass Mind from the Big Bang to the 21st Century
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""The Shift Age is an invaluable compass for aligning the work of complex organizations with the rapidly changing needs and expectations of each organization's stakeholders. Author and futurist David Houle has a knack for 'seeing around corners' in a way that both informs long-term strategic planning and provides a context for day-to-day decision-making. Never has that talent been more essential than it is now. Long before I met David, The Shift Age became mandatory reading for executive staff at Winthrop University, and it continues to be a vital orientation resource for new trustees as well."
- Dr. Anthony J. DiGiorgio, President, Winthrop University, Rock Hill, S.C.
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""David Houle's Shift Age offers an outstanding proposition: the Information Age is ending with the emergence of an age of constant change. Read this book!"
- Reese Schonfeld, Co-founder of CNN, CNN Headline News, and Food Network
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""The Shift Age is a well-written and pivotal book by a sharp-eyed futurist with a gift for being ahead of the curve."
-Richard Noyes, former Associate Director of the Center for Advanced Engineering Study at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology
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""Every aspect of our lives is being impacted by the rapid and radical acceleration of technological change. David Houle's important book The Shift Age is a fascinating navigational tool that will help guide you as you speed into a future that even our imaginations cannot adequately prepare us to steer through."
-Jack Myers, Editor and Publisher of www.JackMyers.com
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""At last a book that explains where we're going and how we got there-written in plain English and designed for short-attention-span readers. Houle writes for all of us who buy more books than we read. After reading just a few of these commentaries, even we luddites can predict what's about to happen and understand the transformations that are now upon us."
-Bob Sirott, NBC5 Chicago News Anchor and WGN Radio Host
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""David Houle shares with us such profound thoughts about and a vision for the future of humanity in his recent book, The Shift Age. I found the optimism of the human spirit that permeated in this book extremely refreshing. It's an amazing book and a must-read!"
-Dr. Feng Hsu, Senior NASA Engineer, Head of Technical & Technology Risk Assessment and Management at NASA GSFC
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""Celebrated futurist David Houle is the perfect guide to show us the next great period of human development. Houle introduces us to The Shift Age, the post-Information Age world of global connectedness and individual freedom. To paraphrase another noted futurist, "Fasten your seatbelts, it's going to be a bumpy ride."
-Charles Memminger, Columnist for the Honolulu Star-Bulletin and Author of Hey Waiter, There's an Umbrella in My Drink!
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""Capturing the dynamics, distress, and decisions we all face, The Shift Age is the travel guide for the future."
-Tom Hudson, Managing Editor, First Business TV
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""The Shift Age is a treasure for those of us who decide what to do on the basis of compelling visions of the future."
-Leo J. Shapiro, Founder and Chairman Emeritus, Leo J. Shapiro & Associates
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