In this chapter, Heilbroner asks whether it is imaginable to exercise effective control over the future-shaping forces of Today. To begin, this chapter presumes that the forces that have established the differences of Yesterday from the Distant Past, and that still shape Today’s world, will continue to exercise their role Tomorrow. Hence, rather as in the case of the Distant Past, we are assuming that the conditions of the present will be the dominant realities of what is to come. In a discussion of the future, the author looks at science and technology and engages in an important critique of capitalism.
