The year’s end is traditionally a time for retrospection but also for looking ahead. December 31 should be a holiday in its own right, not a mere preface to New Year’s but rather equal in status. It’s a perfect time to consider Martin Rees’s book
On the Future: Prospects for Humanity
, first published in 2018 and now reissued with a new preface by the author. Talking about “the future” quite naturally involves talking about “the past.”
