Future Stories
David Christian
Explore how humanity’s stories about the future shape decisions, societies, and purpose while learning to navigate uncertainty with greater clarity.

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Outline
What's it about?
Future Stories (2022) explores how humans and other living things think about and prepare for the future. David Christian, the historian who pioneered Big History, examines how our understanding of time has changed, how science helps us predict what is coming, and why the stories we tell about the future shape our choices today. The book offers a big-picture guide to thinking wisely about tomorrow.
Key ideas
- Humans and other living things all think about and prepare for the future, so anticipating tomorrow is not unique to people.
- Our understanding of time has changed over history, and that change affects how we imagine what is coming.
- Science gives us tools to predict what lies ahead, helping us prepare with more clarity and less guesswork.
- The stories we tell about the future shape the choices we make today.
- David Christian, who pioneered Big History, offers a big-picture guide to thinking wisely about tomorrow.
About the author
David Christian is a British-American historian and professor at Macquarie University in Australia who pioneered Big History, the study of history from the Big Bang to the present. He co-founded the Big History Project to bring this approach to schools around the world. His books include Maps of Time, Origin Story, and Future Stories.
Questions people ask
What is Future Stories by David Christian about?
Future Stories explores how humans and other living things think about and prepare for the future. It argues that the stories we tell about tomorrow shape the choices we make today.
Who is David Christian?
David Christian is the historian who pioneered Big History. In this 2022 book he applies that wide view of time to the question of how we think about the future.
How long is the Durar summary of Future Stories?
The Durar summary takes about 15 minutes to read or listen to. It covers how our sense of time has changed, how science helps us predict, and why future stories matter.
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