The future and its enemies the growing conflict over creativity enterprise and progress is a 1998 book by virginia postrel where she describes the growing conflict in post cold war society between dynamism marked by constant change creativity and exploration in the pursuit of progress and stasism where progress is controlled by careful and cautious planning. The future they tell us is dangerously out of control and unless we precisely govern the forces of change we risk disaster in the future and its enemies virginia postrel explodes the myths behind these claims using examples that range from medicine to fashion she explores how progress truly occurs and demonstrates that human betterment . The future and its enemies is an obvious allusion to karl poppers the open society and its enemies and a lucid description and powerful defense of the open society is exactly what this book offers virginia postrel combines an intuitive understanding of how complex adaptive systems function and evolve with insights about what norms and . Humans may be the only creatures conscious of having a future but all too often we would rather not think about it likewise our societies unable to deal with radical uncertainty do not make policies with a view to the long term instead we suffer from a sense of powerlessness collective irrationality and perennial political discontent in the future and its enemies spanish philosopher