Future Perfect: The Case for Progress in A Networked Age

October 25, 2012
Steven Johnson | Author

Don’t despair that our political system is hopelessly gridlocked by old ideas and entrenched interests. In Future Perfect, bestselling science author and media theorist Steven Johnson says progress and solutions are still possible. Johnson argues that a new model of political change is on the rise—informed by new connections blazed by the internet, but not dependent on technology—that is capable of transforming everything from local governments to classrooms, from protest movements to health care. Best of all, this political worldview disrupts and confounds the traditional boundaries of liberal and conservative. At a time when the conventional wisdom holds that the political system is hopelessly gridlocked with old ideas, Future Perfect makes the timely and inspiring case that progress is still possible, and that new solutions are on the rise.

Speaker Details

Steven Johnson is the best-selling author of seven books, including Where Good Ideas Come From, The Invention of Air, The Ghost Map, and Everything Bad Is Good for You, and is the editor of the anthology The Innovator’s Cookbook. He is the founder of a variety of influential websites—most recently, outside.in—and writes for Time, Wired, The New York Times, and The Wall Street Journal. In 2010, he was chosen by Prospect magazine as one of the Top Ten Brains of the Digital Future.