Far better to confront the idiocies of mankind head-on than to retreat into comforting banalities and warming platitudes.
Homo Deus: A History of Tomorrow by Yuval Noah Harari (Harvill Secker) Where is mankind heading in the age of biotechnology and information technology?
They believe mankind is heading for a glorious post-biological era known as the Singularity.
As in all his work, Shawn suggests mankind is heading towards catastrophe; but, even at this inordinate length, he does so with mordant humour.
At an employment appeal tribunal in central London today, Dinah Rose QC, for Nicholson, said: "The philosophical belief in this case is that mankind is headed towards catastrophic climate change and that, as a result, we are under a duty to do all that we can to live our lives so as to mitigate or avoid that catastrophe for future generations.
Suddenly realising that mankind is headed into ecological overshoot, he often described the moment he got the message as "an epiphany, a rude awakening, an eye-opening experience, and the point of the story felt just like the point of a spear driven straight into my heart". And it is significant that Ray spoke of the heart.
Blessed with innate foresight from birth (one of my first words was "sooth"), I've always been a portender, having the knack of knowing what road mankind is heading down and, more important, whether or not there's a services on the way (often there's not - so evacuate what needs evacuating before setting off).
"The real message here is that communism is objectively where mankind is headed, but don't hold your breath and don't make the mistake of believing that we know how to map out a plan for getting there -- past experience has shown the folly that can lead to," said Ken Lieberthal, a China scholar and former senior director for Asian affairs on the National Security Council.
The musician Jarvis Cocker, in the Mail on Sunday, chose it as his favourite: "The mark of a great book is that it not only alters the way you see the world, it also casts the past in a different light... Harari shows us where mankind is headed in a clear-sighted and accessible manner".
Brazilian digital artist Raquel Kogan thinks technology has given mankind new heads, new hands, and new feet.
A droning track underpins such insightful predictions on where mankind is headed as, "Ain't gonna need your teeth, won't need your eyes".
