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The Best Books Ever Written

On money and its history, society, ecology, technology, education and how the world really works

Michael Haupt
Postcards from 2035
15 min readAug 9, 2017

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“The problem is not to find the answer, it’s to face the answer.” — Terence McKenna, Anthropologist. Photo by Jan Mellström.

It has taken more than 25 years to prepare for Postcards from 2035. In the process I’ve read literally thousands of books. These are the handful of masterpieces I highly recommend to help understand how civilisation has developed the way it has. Read them all and you will have earned a Masters in Humanity. No time to read? Simply scanning the titles will give you a good idea of what’s really going on. Reading the Amazon product description and reviews is also an excellent way to get up to speed quickly.

Why is all this reading necessary?

If we are to design a transcendent civilisation, it’s important to take our various histories into account and consider the factors that have shaped why and how the world has developed as it has. It’s important to understand the influences of media propaganda and who influences the media. It’s also important to understand all the global players and who has been involved in the development of civilisation as we know it. This collection of books provide that understanding and are grouped into the following categories (click on links to quickly scroll to the category that interests you):

  • Money — History — possibly the most important topic to understand, since money shapes society
  • Money — Future — books suggesting where we might be headed with money
  • Economy — a macro look at the global economy
  • Ecology — how damage to the planet is influenced by money and economy
  • Technology — because, whether we like it or not, technology always plays a role in influencing culture
  • Blockchain — because the emergence of triple-entry accounting and the blockchain is the next big leap for humanity
  • Society — plausible models to consider for designing a transcendent society
  • Education — because societal change won’t happen unless we start with education
  • Peak Performance — because health is so much more than treating disease
  • Holism — because it’s important to understand systems thinking when working with multi-disciplinary topics
  • Consciousness — because evolution involves increasing consciousness
  • Brain Lateralisation — because I’m convinced that one of the biggest causes of all societal ills is that we don’t know how to think with our right hemisphere
  • Movements — how to inspire millions to adopt a new ideology
  • Inspiration — these are somewhat unrelated books that inspired me to commence this journey, because of their grand ideas

Enjoy your reading, and let me know if I’ve missed one of your favourites!

Money — History

Articles on the History of Money

A brief history of human enslavement — up to and including your own.

Money — Future

Articles on the Future of Money

Economy

Articles on the Economy

Ecology

There are literally thousands of books trumpeting how bad things are, but very few with positive alternatives and very few that shun bad science. This small collection represents the best I’ve found.

Technology

Among the hundreds of thousands of tech books available, I’ve focussed specifically on books that take culture and society into consideration.

Blockchain & Triple Entry Accounting

We are in the very early days of blockchain and the only people who truly understand it are highly technical people. As a result, most of the sensible writing is in the form of technical white papers, which are difficult to understand for the layperson. These are the best non-technical I can find.

Society

Articles on Society

Education

Peak Performance

  • The Rise of Superman: Decoding the Science of Ultimate Human Performance by Steven Kotler
  • Stealing Fire: How Silicon Valley, the Navy SEALs, and Maverick Scientists Are Revolutionizing the Way We Live and Work by Steven Kotler and Jamie Wheal
  • Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi
  • Creativity: Flow and the Psychology of Discovery and Invention by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi
  • Back to Category List

Holism

Consciousness

Brain Lateralisation

Movements

  • Swarmwise: The Tactical Manual to Changing the World by Rick Falkvinge
  • Blueprint for Revolution: How to Use Rice Pudding, Lego Men, and Other Nonviolent Techniques to Galvanize Communities, Overthrow Dictators, or Simply Change the World by Srdja Popovic and Matthew Miller
  • SMS Uprising: Mobile Activism in Africa edited by Sokari Ekine
  • The Revolutions Were Tweeted by Gilad Lotan, Erhardt Graeff, Mike Ananny, Devin Gaffney, Ian Pearce, and danah boyd
  • Back to Category List

Books That Have Inspired Me

Many of these books are rather dated and there are better books available on the topics, however they were instrumental in laying early foundations for me.

Postcards from 2035 is a series of profoundly simple interlinking ideas describing life in a highly desirable society, where everything and everyone is advanced, happy, intelligent and problem-free. It’s a blueprint of the world we need to create. The best thing you can do to help us get there is to share with your friends and get the conversation started.

Project 2030

If you’re interested in helping us solve some of the planet’s grand challenges with our ambitious Project 2030, please check out the overview, and invite others to do the same.

Bibliography
Money
Capitalism
Economics
Future

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Michael Haupt
Postcards from 2035

Written by Michael Haupt

18.1K Followers
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