Predicting the future isn’t easy

Book review: MegatechDaniel Franklin presents a collection of 20 essays about the changes in technology that we are likely to see in the next three decades.

861-book-megatech-150

It is an understatement to say that predicting the future isn't easy. Fifty years ago, some people were certain we'd be routinely holidaying on Mars, driving flying cars and being attended to by robot butlers by now things that still seem far away. Yet even the smartest minds of the 1950s and 1960s failed to predict the internet, the computing revolution and social media.Despite this, Daniel Franklin, The Economist's executive editor, has decided to tempt fate by putting together a collection of 20 essays about the changes in technology that we are likely to see over the next three decades.

Subscribe to MoneyWeek

Subscribe to MoneyWeek today and get your first six magazine issues absolutely FREE

Get 6 issues free
https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/flexiimages/mw70aro6gl1676370748.jpg

Sign up to Money Morning

Don't miss the latest investment and personal finances news, market analysis, plus money-saving tips with our free twice-daily newsletter

Don't miss the latest investment and personal finances news, market analysis, plus money-saving tips with our free twice-daily newsletter

Sign up
Dr Matthew Partridge
Shares editor, MoneyWeek

Matthew graduated from the University of Durham in 2004; he then gained an MSc, followed by a PhD at the London School of Economics.

He has previously written for a wide range of publications, including the Guardian and the Economist, and also helped to run a newsletter on terrorism. He has spent time at Lehman Brothers, Citigroup and the consultancy Lombard Street Research.

Matthew is the author of Superinvestors: Lessons from the greatest investors in history, published by Harriman House, which has been translated into several languages. His second book, Investing Explained: The Accessible Guide to Building an Investment Portfolio, is published by Kogan Page.

As senior writer, he writes the shares and politics & economics pages, as well as weekly Blowing It and Great Frauds in History columns He also writes a fortnightly reviews page and trading tips, as well as regular cover stories and multi-page investment focus features.

Follow Matthew on Twitter: @DrMatthewPartri