We are routinely reminded of the social and environmental issues pervading the present: pollution, global warming, species extinction, social volatility, fake news, the growing disparity in wealth. These issues prompt us to act but leave us to decide which of the many proposed solutions will deliver the future we hope for. Should we put our faith in technology, innovation, the market? Should we trust science, change our behaviour, adjust our lifestyles? Should we just carry on as usual?

Our decisions will necessarily influence our future.

Framework for Our Future treats our current circumstance as part of a dynamic, complex human-environment system. It describes how we (as individuals), our culture and the environment interact, with feedback, over a wide range of scales to form the humanenvironment system and the constraints this imposes on our lives. It provides a model of the system that helps us to more fully appreciate how we arrived at our current circumstance, our contribution to it, how we change and our views about our possible futures. With this in place, Framework for Our Future asks us to consider an alternative possible future, viability, and suggests how we might gain the wisdom, and make the decisions and changes, to achieve it.

Framework for Our Future is an abridged version of Viability, Complexity and Us: The Framework Constraining Our Future (Knight 2019).

John’s curiosity and questioning attitude to life, prompted him to undertake a wider examination of his view of the world and ponderings about its state. This led him to expand his knowledge in the disciplines within science, technology, humanities and the arts. His passion to understand how our complex world functions as a whole has led him to strive to gain a greater appreciation for our past and how various cultures live and function with the challenges that we face. This resulted in him having to look deeply into the mirror. His conclusions have resulted in the writing of his books.Through undertaking this journey to make sense of our challenges he has become richer in spirit and thankful for the help he has received along the way. He is hopeful that his books will help others as they undertake their personal journey as they come to terms with the complexity of the world and in realizing the role they play in its functioning.John holds a BSc and MSc in Geology and Geochemistry.

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