The Long View: Why We Need to Transform How the World Sees Time - Paperback

by Richard Fisher (Author)

A wide-ranging and thought-provoking exploration of the importance of long-term thinking.

Humans are unique in our ability to understand time, able to comprehend the past and future like no other species. Yet modern-day technology and capitalism have supercharged our short-termist tendencies and trapped us in the present, at the mercy of reactive politics, quarterly business targets and 24-hour news cycles.

It wasn't always so. In medieval times, craftsmen worked on cathedrals that would be unfinished in their lifetime. Indigenous leaders fostered intergenerational reciprocity. And in the early twentieth century, writers dreamed of worlds thousands of years hence. Now, as we face long-term challenges on an unprecedented scale, how do we recapture that far-sighted vision?

Richard Fisher takes us from the boardrooms of Japan - home to some of the world's oldest businesses - to European laboratories where scientists work as custodians on centuries-long experiments. He examines the psychological biases that discourage the long view, and talks to the growing number of people from the worlds of philosophy, technology, science and the arts who are exploring smart ways to overcome them. How can we learn to widen our perception of time and honour our obligations to the lives of those not yet born?

Back Jacket

'A wise, humane book laced with curiosity and hope. It will open your mind and horizons - and leave you giddy at the prospect of all that we may yet become.'
Tom Chatfield, author of How to Think

Humans can comprehend time like no other species, projecting our minds between past and future. Yet today we are so often trapped in the present, at the mercy of short-termist politics, quarterly business targets and 24-hour news cycles, while tomorrow's risks stack up.

It needn't be so. Craftsmen once built cathedrals over lifetimes, indigenous cultures embraced intergenerational reciprocity, and writers dreamed of worlds thousands of years hence. Now, as we face unprecedented long-term challenges, how do we recapture that far-sighted vision?

On a journey that takes us from the boardrooms of Japan to a secret artwork hidden in a Welsh forest, The Long View shows us how to expand our minds into deeper timescales, and discover
meaning, perspective and hope along the way.

'Utterly brilliant. Profoundly thought-provoking, and at times movingly
personal, The Long View is a crucial exploration of our relationship with time.'
Lewis Dartnell, author of Being Human

Author Biography

Richard Fisher is a senior journalist with BBC Global News in London, where he writes, commissions and edits stories for BBC Future and bbc.com, specialising in science, technology and health journalism. From 2019-20, Richard was a Knight Science Journalism fellow at MIT, based in Cambridge, Massachusetts.