How to thrive in the future

1. Physics of the Future: How Science will
    Shape Human Destiny and Our Daily Lives
    by the Year 2100

      By Michio Kaku
      Recommended by Svetlana Bryzgalova, Assistant Professor of Finance

“A great book by a renowned physicist. Kaku predicts technological advances that could become possible in the next 100 years, including driverless cars, the recording of dreams, DNA chips, the resurrection of extinct animals, building chimeras and internet-enabled contact lenses. What makes it interesting is not just the enjoyable way in which the author describes the mechanics and existing challenges for all these innovations, but the broader set of questions raised. Suppose we develop replicators like in Star Trek – would that really solve the problem of world poverty once and for all?”

2. Economics for the Common Good

       By Jean Tirole
       Recommended by Andrea Galeotti, Professor of Economics

“Rapid technological change has led platform to be central in the matching of scarce resources and in the shaping of social interaction. When should we regulate these platforms – and how? Read the book.”

3. SuperCooperators: Altruism, Evolution, and            Why We Need Each Other to Succeed

       By Martin Nowak and Roger Highfield
       Recommended by Francisco Brahm, Assistant Professor of Strategy
       and Entrepreneurship

“First, this book illuminates our understanding of cooperation in society. Cooperation has been crucial to our species’ past success and it is a necessary piece in solving massive public-good challenges we face, such as climate change. Second, it shows that cooperation is a fundamental evolutionary force: not only a key source of adaptability for groups, firms, and entire nations, but also the basis of increased complexity in nature and society.”

4. How Transformative Innovations Shaped the          Rise of Nations: From Ancient Rome to                    Modern America

       By Gerard Tellis and Stav Rosenzweig
       Recommended by Xu Zhang, Assistant Professor of Marketing

“A brilliant and thought-provoking book on how transformative innovations change people and society. By displaying and interpreting the history of various nations, Tellis and Rosenzweig teach us, what humans have done and how we can thrive by embracing innovations. The lessons taught by them are particularly valuable in such a rapidly changing business and technological environment.”

5. Radical Markets: Uprooting Capitalism and            Democracy for a Just Society

       By Eric Posner and Glen Weyl
       Recommended by George Chen, Assistant Professor, Management Science           and Operations

“In this thought-provoking book, Posner and Weyl share their insights on the fundamental causes of many hotly debated social and political challenges the world is facing right now. They provide truly radical yet well-founded solutions based on the principles of mechanism design. Their views and thoughts are truly valuable to understand and to cope with the rapidly changing social and political environment.”

6. Who Gets What – and Why: The Hidden World        of Matchmaking and Market Design

       By Alvin Roth
       Recommended by Ali Aouad, Assistant Professor, Management Science
       and Operations

“Technology is transforming the way the markets operate. Disruptive companies such as Airbnb and Uber have an unprecedented ability to engineer the social interactions on their platforms by deciding who knows what, who gets what, at what price, and so on. This book touches on all the nuances and fundamental issues in market design. It is very clearly written and accessible to a broad audience.”

7. Unmodern Observations: Volume 2

       By Friedrich Nietzsche
       Recommended by Ali Aouad, Assistant Professor, Management Science
       and Operations

“A classic essay on why the study of history in a broad sense is essential to shape our course of action and the future of our societies.”