Press release

'The Birth of Now' literary event sparks debate on developing countries, beliefs, inventions, Brexit, China's current ‘birth of now', our "dull future", and the cause and effect of the greatest change in history (which started in Britain)

New book, The Birth of Now, considers the cause and effect of the greatest change in history (which started in Britain), but also what lies ahead for us all. The author, Jamie Cawley, predicts a government dominated by a belief in Environmentalism (one of the 10 top beliefs outlined in his first book, Beliefs; And the world they have created), a life with much less change and fast-pace, where cities and towns are carbon copies of each other worldwide, and in many areas (possibly even including music, film and the arts) there will be no possible further breakthroughs or ground-breaking new developments, as we will have 'done it all'. Jamie predicts the fast-changing world we currently inhabit (which he refers to in the book as the 'Now' period) will change, as we know it, in around 80 to 200 years (to become the 'Forever' period). And he says 'blips' such as Brexit will have little or no impact on this timeline prediction. Jamie is available for interview while in the UK (he is a Brit living in China) for the next two weeks: helenlewis@literallypr.com
 

Friday 8^thJuly 2016, London, United Kingdom: Last night, at the Dyers Hall in London, lecturer and author, Jamie Cawley, unveiled his new book that reveals a unique perspective on the cause and effect of the Birth of Now (the current period of fast-evolving change that we've been in since 1770).

Surrounded by the opulence of chandeliers and magnificent artwork, in one of the City's oldest buildings, Jamie was joined by 50 guests to discuss his research and theories packed into this original history book, considering life before the Birth of Now (Then), the ‘Now' period (1770 - date) and predicts that the ‘Forever' period will arrive in the next 80 to 200 years.

Paul Waters, BBC radio journalist, who hosted the Q&A event, summarised The Birth of Now in one sentence: "When it comes to history, everything you think you know is wrong".

He explained: "We think of history as little changes, bit by bit, things getting better, but this isn't true. Most of the time, nothing happens, and when it does, it might be getting worse, until the big change time, which started in Britain in 1770. At the time of the Birth of Now, more than 4000 years since the Pyramids were built in Egypt, it was still the biggest manmade building in the world. 140 years later there are 10,000 buildings that are bigger than the Pyramids. The book is about why it all changed, when it changed, how it changed and when it will stop changing."

The Birth of Now Book Launch. L-R, Sarah Lockett, Author Jamie Cawley, Paul Waters at Dyers Hall, London

Why has this view of history not been shown before?

Jamie Cawley explains: "Big picture history is very unpopular at the moment so academics and experts, historians and philosophers tend to concentrate on the small bricks within. History is dominated by huge events such as the World Wars and rise and fall of communism. Now we are further away we can see the Everest of the Birth of Now behind these events; if we want to look. The Birth of Now also happened at the time of the Napoleonic Wars and American Revolutionary War, so it is overlooked in history."

What inspired you to write this book?

During the Q&A at Dyers Hall, Jamie Cawley said: "I've lived in China now for four years, first in Beijing and now Shanghai. This has given me an opportunity to see the astonishing changes going on there; a sudden change from the way things always were to the way things are today. It's a change that hasn't been explained by the politics, economics or philosophy that I studied or the innovation work I've done since. It's a change I call the Birth of Now. What's happening in China today is a copy of the original birth of now that happened here in Britain from 1770. This change wasn't just an industrial revolution. Thousands of years of desperately slow advance suddenly flipped. Society changed from slavery, abolished in the middle of the period, to something moving towards a welfare state. Politics moved from monarchy to something like democracy. Since the Birth of Now, world population has grown 7 times, energy consumption 60 times and wealth 120 times. That's a fantastic and completely unparalleled change. The industrial revolution doesn't explain why it happened, why then, why here in Britain, why is it only happening in China now?
"Before the Birth of Now, poverty dominated all over the world. Since then growth in rising prosperity has moved around the world transforming region by region. There are no books out there that explain why it happened so I had to write the book to explain why and what happened."

I've seen the future and it's...dull

"At the moment we are still the midst of dramatic change - in this ‘Now' period - but you can see things that are beginning to come to some kind of an end, and things that cannot be improved upon. If you've got air conditioning that gives you good quality of air, cools you down, heats you up, as you require, you can't much improve on that. You can make it cheaper perhaps but that doesn't change the experience. If you look at music, the great orchestras came about because technology advanced so instruments could stay in tune for longer, then you get amplification technology and we make rock and roll music, once you get to the point when you can make any sound you want there are fewer breakthroughs to discover!

"We're not doomed but I fear that life will be less interesting and rather dull. In the fullness of time, when the 100m record has stayed the same for 400 years we'll realise we're in a period of no change."

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Notes to editors

Photography from the event, recording/transcript of the Q&A session, copies of The Birth of Now (and Jamie Cawley's first book, Beliefs), access to Jamie for editorial commissions and interviews, can all be requested viainfo@literallypr.com. Please note Jamie is only in the UK for the first three weeks of July before returning to his home in China.

Event details:

https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/jamie-cawleys-londonbook-launch-the-birth-of-now-tickets-21787861079?aff=es2

Online press folder:https://www.dropbox.com/sh/tz9bicopm1cc2wl/AADIwRnWcnPzEV74Mg4mmB5da?dl=0

Credit for the book:

The Birth of Now: The cause and effect of the greatest change in history by Jamie Cawley (July 2016) is published by Matador and available online and in all good bookshops for £9.99 (paperback) and £5.99 (eBook).

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