Overview
In The Dilbert Future, Scott Adams turns futurist, offering a bold, compelling - and often hysterical - vision of future society. First, the good news: Human nature won't change much; many, if not most of us, will continue to be guided by the immutable principles of stupidity, selfishness, and horniness - much as we are today, but with more advanced technology. But there's more! Drawing on his keen grasp of human nature and social dynamics, Adams daringly predicts key developments in every part of the futurescape. For example, in The Dilbert Future, you'll learn in the future, life definitely won't be like Star Trek, there will be a huge market for technology products that help workers goof off and still get paid, Internet capacity will increase indefinitely to keep up with the egos of the people using it, and your clothes will be smarter than you. In The Dilbert Future, Scott Adams dons his soothsayer's robes and turns his piercing eye (and trenchant wit) to subjects as diverse as technology, the workplace, elections, the battle of the sexes, drive-through pet care, and the possibility of intelligent (or stupid) life on other planets. The Dilbert Future is a mind-boggling blend of farce and fact that plays our social hot buttons like a piano, leaving the reader gasping in both wonder and hilarity.Synopsis
From Dilbert's shrinking cubicle and to Dogbert's advice for getting ahead to oddball consultants from Elbonia, Adams revisits the development of all that is Dilbert.
Publishers Weekly
Countless people look forward to the morning paper because it contains a Dilbert comic strip, a fine way to start the day on a cheerful note. But recently, at least as evidenced by this book, Adams's humor has developed into something snide and derogatory. He sees most people as "induhviduals." Perhaps he is boredjust as we all will become, he declares here, when everything is shared, via the Internet and new developments in video technology. Reading his book piecemeal, one catches more of the facetious humor. Among the 65 predictions here, Adams echoes many scholars in forecasting a work force of freelance experts doing contract work. He hits the target again when he dubs telephone marketing "confusopoly" because it serves only to befuddle the customer about price, since all companies provide essentially the same service. But one wonders why he bothers tackling certain areas, as in Prediction 59: "In the future, there will be drive-through pet-care facilities." Much of the work reiterates George W.S. Trow's conclusion that our civilization is growing increasingly trivial. Therefore, Adams's inclusion of a recommendation for making dreams come truewriting down one's wishes 15 times each dayis bizarre, suggestive of Cou's 1920s maxim that "Every day, in every way, I'm getting better and better."