A spellbinding exploration of the human capacity to imagine the future 

Our ability to think about the future is one of the most powerful tools at our disposal. In The Invention of Tomorrow, cognitive scientists Thomas Suddendorf, Jonathan Redshaw, and Adam Bulley argue that its emergence transformed humans from unremarkable primates to creatures that hold the destiny of the planet in their hands.  

Drawing on their own cutting-edge research, the authors break down the science of foresight, showing us where it comes from, how it works, and how it made our world. Journeying through biology, psychology, history, and culture, they show that thinking ahead is at the heart of human nature—even if we often get it terribly wrong. Incisive and expansive, The Invention of Tomorrow offers a fresh perspective on the human tale that shows how our species clawed its way to control the future.

THOMAS SUDDENDORF is a professor in the School of Psychology at the University of Queensland, Australia. He is the author of The Gap (Basic, 2013). Suddendorf has published extensively on the concept of “mental time travel” in academic papers like Science, Trends in Cognitive Sciences and Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society, with well over 11,000 citations, as well as over a dozen book chapters. He lives in Brisbane, Australia. 

JON REDSHAW is a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Queensland. He has published extensively on the development and evolution of mental time travel, has conducted cross-cultural foresight studies with indigenous children in the remote Australian bush and the Kalahari desert, and has been interviewed in Science and Scientific American. He lives in Brisbane, Australia. 

ADAM BULLEY is a postdoctoral fellow in the Department of Psychology at Harvard University, where he researches the cognitive neuroscience of foresight. He has won numerous honors and awards for his research and teaching and has given radio interviews with ABC. He lives in Lilyfield, New South Wales, Australia.