No day but today. [Flash Forward by Rose Eveleth]

An exploration of potential tomorrows from the host of the massively popular and critically acclaimed podcast Flash Forward

Flash Forward: An Illustrated Guide to Possible (And Not So Possible) Tomorrows takes readers on a journey from speculative fiction to speculative “fact.” Producer and host of the podcast Flash Forward, Rose Eveleth poses provocative questions about our future, which are brought to life by 12 of the most imaginative comics and graphic artists at work, including Matt Lubchanksy, Sophie Goldstein, Ben Passmore, and Box Brown. Each artist chooses a subject close to their heart—Ignatz Award nominee Julia Gfrörer, for instance, will imagine a future in which robots make art—and presents their chosen future in their own style. Drawing on her interviews with experts in various fields of study, Eveleth will then report on what is complete fantasy and what is only just out of reach in insightful essays following the comics. This book introduces compelling visions of the future and vividly explores the human consequences of developing technologies. Flash Forward reveals how complicated, messy, incredible, frightening, and strange our future might be.

Rose Eveleth's Flash Forward is a collection of 12 speculative science-fiction comics, each imagining technology, social trends, and looming crises to their logical extremes. What constitutes personhood? To what degree will capitalism continue to encroach in all arenas of life? What horrendous forms will capitalism take under the molding of climate change? As we normalize capitalist intervention in natural processes, how will we change fundamentally? If you didn't get it, the big takeaway, as I see it, was the capitalism ruins and threatens everything.

I'm not such a big podcast listener. I know there are a lot of topics people talk about and focus on, but it did give me some kind of joy to know that Eveleth's Flash Forward podcast has been serving as a niche space for discussions in futurism and utopian mechanics. As an expansion of the podcast, had the book just been a collection of the comics themselves I wouldn't have enjoy the book as much. Instead we get comics followed by individual expounding reports. That added context of extant conversations in academia and society, of real-world precursors, or the slow march towards a given possible future really added to the gravitas of each future imagining. I can't say that I agreed with the outlook in each comic, but I think that really works out because it got me thinking. And I can only imagine when discussed with community, that each comic would prompt further discussion and likely troubleshooting. Or at least some kind of introspection. 5 stars from me.

Flash Forward is due for publication March 30, 2021.