Bold New World

William Knoke, investment banker and visionary futurist, believes it is not the much-touted Information Age that best defines the new era, but rather what he names the Placeless Society. Revolutions in communications and transportation are ushering us into the Age of Everything-Everywhere, where people and goods often move instantaneously from one location to another. He shows us that because "near equals far", all the equations by which national power, corporate wealth, and personal influence have been calculated must be radically redrawn. Bold New World examines our rapidly changing society on the eve of the new millennium and foresees the world in the decades to come. Knoke doesn't just describe trends; he analyzes the dynamic forces that link them, which are creating chains of cause and effect already rippling out into the next century. In brief, imaginary episodes that open each chapter, Knoke illustrates how these trends will affect the everyday lives of people around the world, from CEOs to migrant workers. After sketching these lives, he returns to his ever-practical examination of the future, offering hands-on advice on how we may prepare ourselves for what lies ahead.

This very large 465 page book is actually 2 separate but closely related books bound together as one — an inspirational novel and a thought-provoking philosophy book. Together they tell the story of a bold and visionary group of people creating a highly advanced prototype community and way of life based upon applying a philosophy that believes in human potential rather than supernatural forces, helps individuals self-actualize, promotes values and responsibility for SELF, SOCIETY, & ENVIRONMENT; and creates harmonious communities in which human potential flourishes. This results in happy people doing great things and achieving a tremendous sense of enjoyment and accomplishment in the process (something we all seek). As the story unfolds, a bright progressive group of people in Colorado adopt this new philosophy, become part of the Potentialist Movement, and focus on how to fund and develop this highly advanced community. To meet the challenge, the founder (Freeman Valor Smith) convinces the Hollywood producer (Steven Spielman) that the story would make a good film, thus ingeniously getting the producer to make the development of the project possible by funding its construction as part of the cost of production. So the project gets underway. But the powerful editor of the local newspaper (Norman Sully) has a deep grudge against the founder and plans to totally disrupt the group's efforts — so he hires an attractive undercover reporter (Serene St. Haven) to infiltrate the group and dig up as much dirt as possible. But a romance ensues between the reporter and the founder that changes the situation dramatically. So the editor takes drastic measures on his own to sabotage the project. What results is an intricate web of romance, treachery, intrigue, and inspiration. With great courage, this resourceful group of Potentialists overcomes all obstacles and a BOLD NEW WORLD is created which shows what people with the right values in the right environment can accomplish.

Inspired by her transgender son, activist Jodie Patterson explores identity, gender, race, and authenticity to tell the real-life story of a family’s history and transformation. “A courageous and poetic testimony on family and the self, and the learning and unlearning we must do for those we love.”—Janet Mock In 2009, Jodie Patterson, mother of five and beauty entrepreneur, has her world turned upside down when her determined toddler, Penelope, reveals, “Mama, I’m not a girl. I am a boy.” The Pattersons are a tribe of unapologetic Black matriarchs, scholars, financiers, Southern activists, artists, musicians, and disruptors, but with Penelope’s revelation, Jodie realizes her existing definition of family isn’t wide enough for her child’s needs. In The Bold World, we witness Patterson reshaping her own attitudes, beliefs, and biases, learning from her children, and a whole new community, how to meet the needs of her transgender son. In doing so, she opens the minds of those who raised and fortified her, all the while challenging cultural norms and gender expectations. Patterson finds that the fight for racial equality in which her ancestors were so prominent helped pave the way for the current gender revolution. From Georgia to South Carolina, Ghana to Brooklyn, Patterson learns to remove the division between me and you, us and them, straight and queer—and she reminds us to celebrate her uncle Gil Scott Heron’s prophecy that the revolution will not be televised. It will happen deeply, unequivocally, inside each and every one of us. Transition, we learn, doesn’t just belong to the transgender person. Transition, for the sake of knowing more and becoming more, is the responsibility of and gift to all. The Bold World is the result, an intimate and exquisite story of authenticity, courage, and love. Praise for The Bold World “In The Bold World, Jodie Patterson makes a case for respecting everyone’s gender identity by way of showing how she came to accept her son, Penelope. In tying that struggle to the struggle for race rights in this country during her own childhood, she paints a vivid picture of the permanent work of social justice.”—Andrew Solomon, bestselling author of The Noonday Demon and Far from the Tree

Bold is a radical how-to guide for using exponential technologies, moonshot thinking, and crowd-powered tools to create extraordinary wealth while also positively impacting the lives of billions. A follow-up to the authors' Abundance (2012).

Have you ever wondered what it will take to transform each African country into a prosperous nation where each citizen has a real opportunity to thrive? Africa's narrative has been shaped by a vision of the future that remains bleak. A vision that says a little more is okay for the African. It is time to challenge and change our paradigm of what great outcomes look like for an African country. It is time for The Bold New Normal of an Africa where citizens of each country genuinely have the opportunity to prosper. The formula for sustainable prosperity has been tried and tested world over. Why then do we continue to hope that a different method, that has thus far failed the continent, will create sustainable prosperity? The Bold New Normal is a timely publication that coincides with the 400th anniversary of the start of slavery: the year of return. 400 years since the unraveling of African began, it is time to piece her back together and focus forward. It is surely the time for The Bold New Normal!

Bestselling author and renowned economist Lester Thurow argues forcefully that globalization is not a done deal and we must seize the moment now if we are to create a new global economy in which all can prosper. In this new book, Thurow examines the newly–forming global economy, with a special focus on the role of the US and the dangers to our own national well–being. He examines such questions as: What's at stake for us in the global economy? Why is it important that the system be equitable and that other countries prosper along with us? What should our goals as a nation be – long term and short term? What are the tough choices that need to be made in our relationship with other countries and world regulatory bodies? What role should we be playing globally? What are the political, economic, social choices / tradeoffs we will have to confront? Thurow contends that the huge and growing US trade deficit poses grave dangers to the value of the dollar and is putting our own economy in jeopardy. As the world economy leaps national boundaries, its hallmark seems to be a rising instability and a growing inequality between the first and third worlds. Financial crises in the third world come ever more frequently and seem to be ever more severe. The first world economies seem to be in ever more frantic boom and bust cycles. Globalization causes riots throughout the world and is one factor in the rise of terrorism against the West. Thurow shows how some nations, including Ireland and China, have embraced the concept of globalization and placed themselves into a position to prosper with growing and productive national economies. He contrasts their positive actions with Japan, whose leaders have allowed the nation to drift into stagnation and have destroyed its prosperity. He argues that this is the time to choose globalization or be left behind, the time to "build a global economy that eliminates the defects," and he provides plenty of ideas for corporations, governments, economists, and citizens to act upon.

If you want to stop living like an invisible ghost and start living like a master of destiny, this is the book you read.

Allegra Hyde's debut story collection, Of This New World, offers a menagerie of utopias: real, imagined, and lost. Starting with the Garden of Eden and ending in a Mars colony, the stories wrestle with conflicts of idealism and practicality, communal ambition and individual kink. Stories jump between genres--from historical fiction to science fiction, realism to fabulism--but all ask those fundamental human questions: What do we do when we lose our utopia? What will we do to get it back?