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Readership
This is a book for anyone thinking about our social and economic system and what comes next:
academic and professional futurists
business leaders and strategists
policy analysts and advisers
anyone responsible for strategic planning in any organisation
anyone searching for ideas about how to make a better future
anyone working with sustainability or the commons and curious to see how they might come together in a systematic way to create a better future.
Imagining After Capitalism is the culmination of professional futurist Andy Hines’s 10-year exploration of what comes next after capitalism. Drawing on his decades of experience developing foresight methodologies, he offers three “guiding images” for the long-term future.
While a lot is written about what is wrong with capitalism, there is much less on what might replace it. The absence of compelling positive alternatives keeps us stuck in a combination of fear, denial, and false hope.
But Andy Hines found that many ideas about what could be next are being developed by citizens, activists, and scholars worldwide. This book analyzes and synthesizes those views, culminating in 3 broad “guiding images”:
an environmentally-driven Circular Commons
a socially-and politically-driven Non-Workers’ Paradise
a technology-driven Tech-Led Abundance.
Among the book’s key findings are:
demonizing capitalism is counter-productive – better to adopt the view that capitalism “did its job” but is no longer a good fi t with the emerging future.
there are 7 key drivers – shifting values, technology acceleration, inequality, automation, stagnation, climate and carrying capacity, and the ineffective left – creating the need for a new system.
proven futurist tools and methods, such as the Three Horizons framework, are uniquely suited to developing compelling images that provide a North Star to more desirable futures.
Imagining After Capitalism argues “first things first.” Let us first decide where we want to go before building detailed plans for getting there. The three “guiding images” are not the answers, but are intended to provoke discussion about the possibilities.
The book offers an alternative to the prevailing doom and gloom and suggests there are indeed positive alternatives out there and it’s time to get started on crafting a different path to the future!
Reviewed by Andrew Smart: "This is a fantastic book on social, political, and economic
change ... After Capitalism appreciates the progress and bounty that
industrial capitalism has provided, yet recognizes its many flaws, and the
growing recognition that humanity needs a political and economic system that
serves the interests of all humans, without ravaging our environment. A wide
number of solutions have been proposed. This book covers all the ones I was
aware of and several more that I had not heard of.
It beautifully outlines three visions for advances that will
be critical to the next economic system to come: An environmental stewardship
vision, a human-welfare and agency vision, and a technological progress and
abundance vision. As the book describes, many names have been proposed for an
economic system that we’d like to see evolve out of modern industrial
capitalism. It doesn’t pick any one of these as most likely contenders.
Instead, it leaves it to the reader to make their own choice among the many that
are summarized."
5.0 out of 5 starsImagining Flourishing Societies in an Era of Technology Abundance Reviewed in the United States on February 16, 2025 This is a fantastic book on social, political, and economic change, some of the hardest topics to write well about. It is written by a leading foresight educator, practitioner, and scholar. He has trained professional futurists for over twenty years at the University of Houston, the top US masters program in foresight models and methods.
After Capitalism appreciates the progress and bounty that industrial capitalism has provided, yet recognizes its many flaws, and the growing recognition that humanity needs a political and economic system that serves the interests of all humans, without ravaging our environment. A wide number of solutions have been proposed. This book covers all the ones I was aware of and several more that I had not heard of.
It beautifully outlines three visions for advances that will be critical to the next economic system to come: An environmental stewardship vision, a human-welfare and agency vision, and a technological progress and abundance vision. As the book describes, many names have been proposed for an economic system that we’d like to see evolve out of modern industrial capitalism. It doesn’t pick any one of these as most likely contenders. Instead, it leaves it to the reader to make their own choice among the many that are summarized.
One particularly good name for what will come next, in my view, is Intelligence Capitalism. This name reminds us that just as Capital beat Labor for the production of value under Industrial Capitalism, Intelligence will beat Capital in value production in the era of intelligent machines, and particularly the value production that matters most to human happiness and welfare, the value produced in local, community, family, and personal domains. This name also argues that Capitalism will not disappear, as some of those covered in this book predict, but will instead get a new regulator, in the form of AI, in its many emerging forms.
In the next two decades, as AI gets really useful, and as Personal AIs (PAIs) emerge, AI models that know our interests, values, goals, and tasks, AIs that advise us, which we control, and that are in our own private cloud, vast numbers of us will gain accelerating personal agency, choice, and activism capacity. A part of us will continually grow like children, over our entire lives, a part of us that is technological, not biological. The coming of personal AIs will have profound implications for 21st century society, as I’ve been proposing since 1999.
We’re right now on the edge of an era where Intelligence grows and distributes at a far faster rate than even the flow of money or physical assets, with labor now a third tier economic actor. Recent advances in open source AI are a weak signal of just how fast intelligence can distribute and decentralize value production.
Accelerating and increasingly personal machine intelligence will lead to some profound changes in the scientific, technological, economic, environmental, political, legal, ethical, and social (STEEPLES) dimensions of mid 21st century societies. This book is a great introduction to the current debate on what those changes could be, should be, and will be. It is also an invitation for each of us to improve our foresight where it matters most to us and our communities, and to get involved in making a better future now for all life on this precious planet.
John M. Smart
5.0 out of 5 starsImagining Flourishing Societies in an Era of Technology Abundance Reviewed in the United States on February 16, 2025 This is a fantastic book on social, political, and economic change, some of the hardest topics to write well about. It is written by a leading foresight educator, practitioner, and scholar. He has trained professional futurists for over twenty years at the University of Houston, the top US masters program in foresight models and methods.
After Capitalism appreciates the progress and bounty that industrial capitalism has provided, yet recognizes its many flaws, and the growing recognition that humanity needs a political and economic system that serves the interests of all humans, without ravaging our environment. A wide number of solutions have been proposed. This book covers all the ones I was aware of and several more that I had not heard of.
It beautifully outlines three visions for advances that will be critical to the next economic system to come: An environmental stewardship vision, a human-welfare and agency vision, and a technological progress and abundance vision. As the book describes, many names have been proposed for an economic system that we’d like to see evolve out of modern industrial capitalism. It doesn’t pick any one of these as most likely contenders. Instead, it leaves it to the reader to make their own choice among the many that are summarized.
One particularly good name for what will come next, in my view, is Intelligence Capitalism. This name reminds us that just as Capital beat Labor for the production of value under Industrial Capitalism, Intelligence will beat Capital in value production in the era of intelligent machines, and particularly the value production that matters most to human happiness and welfare, the value produced in local, community, family, and personal domains. This name also argues that Capitalism will not disappear, as some of those covered in this book predict, but will instead get a new regulator, in the form of AI, in its many emerging forms.
In the next two decades, as AI gets really useful, and as Personal AIs (PAIs) emerge, AI models that know our interests, values, goals, and tasks, AIs that advise us, which we control, and that are in our own private cloud, vast numbers of us will gain accelerating personal agency, choice, and activism capacity. A part of us will continually grow like children, over our entire lives, a part of us that is technological, not biological. The coming of personal AIs will have profound implications for 21st century society, as I’ve been proposing since 1999.
We’re right now on the edge of an era where Intelligence grows and distributes at a far faster rate than even the flow of money or physical assets, with labor now a third tier economic actor. Recent advances in open source AI are a weak signal of just how fast intelligence can distribute and decentralize value production.
Accelerating and increasingly personal machine intelligence will lead to some profound changes in the scientific, technological, economic, environmental, political, legal, ethical, and social (STEEPLES) dimensions of mid 21st century societies. This book is a great introduction to the current debate on what those changes could be, should be, and will be. It is also an invitation for each of us to improve our foresight where it matters most to us and our communities, and to get involved in making a better future now for all life on this precious planet.
John M. Smart
5.0 out of 5 starsImagining Flourishing Societies in an Era of Technology Abundance Reviewed in the United States on February 16, 2025 This is a fantastic book on social, political, and economic change, some of the hardest topics to write well about. It is written by a leading foresight educator, practitioner, and scholar. He has trained professional futurists for over twenty years at the University of Houston, the top US masters program in foresight models and methods.
After Capitalism appreciates the progress and bounty that industrial capitalism has provided, yet recognizes its many flaws, and the growing recognition that humanity needs a political and economic system that serves the interests of all humans, without ravaging our environment. A wide number of solutions have been proposed. This book covers all the ones I was aware of and several more that I had not heard of.
It beautifully outlines three visions for advances that will be critical to the next economic system to come: An environmental stewardship vision, a human-welfare and agency vision, and a technological progress and abundance vision. As the book describes, many names have been proposed for an economic system that we’d like to see evolve out of modern industrial capitalism. It doesn’t pick any one of these as most likely contenders. Instead, it leaves it to the reader to make their own choice among the many that are summarized.
One particularly good name for what will come next, in my view, is Intelligence Capitalism. This name reminds us that just as Capital beat Labor for the production of value under Industrial Capitalism, Intelligence will beat Capital in value production in the era of intelligent machines, and particularly the value production that matters most to human happiness and welfare, the value produced in local, community, family, and personal domains. This name also argues that Capitalism will not disappear, as some of those covered in this book predict, but will instead get a new regulator, in the form of AI, in its many emerging forms.
In the next two decades, as AI gets really useful, and as Personal AIs (PAIs) emerge, AI models that know our interests, values, goals, and tasks, AIs that advise us, which we control, and that are in our own private cloud, vast numbers of us will gain accelerating personal agency, choice, and activism capacity. A part of us will continually grow like children, over our entire lives, a part of us that is technological, not biological. The coming of personal AIs will have profound implications for 21st century society, as I’ve been proposing since 1999.
We’re right now on the edge of an era where Intelligence grows and distributes at a far faster rate than even the flow of money or physical assets, with labor now a third tier economic actor. Recent advances in open source AI are a weak signal of just how fast intelligence can distribute and decentralize value production.
Accelerating and increasingly personal machine intelligence will lead to some profound changes in the scientific, technological, economic, environmental, political, legal, ethical, and social (STEEPLES) dimensions of mid 21st century societies. This book is a great introduction to the current debate on what those changes could be, should be, and will be. It is also an invitation for each of us to improve our foresight where it matters most to us and our communities, and to get involved in making a better future now for all life on this precious planet.
Contents
Chapter 1 - INTRODUCTION AND APPROACH...
PART I. THE RESEARCH... Chapter 2 - SIGNALS AND DRIVERS 2.1 Framing: Three horizons and the domain map 2.2 Scanning and researching 2.3 Drivers
Chapter 3 - THE BASELINE. 3.1 Context 3.2 Driver outcomes. 3.3 Key assumptions guiding Neoliberal Capitalism... 3.4 Other factors disintegrating the Baseline 3.5 Baseline scenario.
Chapter 4 - TRANSITIONS. 4.1 Collapse scenarios. 4.1.1 Driver outcomes. 4.1.2 Overshoot 4.1.3 Class War. 4.1.4 Rogue AI. 4.2 New Equilibrium Scenarios. 4.2.1 Driver Outcomes. 4.2.2 New Sources of Value. 4.2.3 Collaborative Sharing Platforms. 4.2.4 Sustainability transition..
PART II. THE GUIDING IMAGES (each of the next 3 chapters has these headings: Driver outcomes, Challenges and responses, Purposes, Principles, Tools, Personal, Leadership, Pathway, Templates)
Chapter 8 - IMPLICATIONS. 8.1 Past: As prologue?. 8.2 Present: Comparing drivers across the scenarios. 8.3 Future: Utopia not impossible. 8.4 The Global Question.. 8.5 Pathways to the guiding images.
Chapter 9 - CONCLUSION: TEN SHIFTS. 9.2 In closing.
