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Futurist
Update for December
Why Kilimanjaro may be
snowless within 20 years. … Why HIV/AIDS is hitting young women hardest. …
Why cute is the new cool. … These stories and more in the December 2009
issue of Futurist Update.
Privacy vs. Perfection
At the World Future Society 2009 conference, bioethicist Arthur L. Caplan
explains that eliminating the right to privacy carried in Roe v. Wade could
potentially allow government to mandate the use of "designer baby"
technologies.
WorldFuture 2010, taking place in Boston, will feature presentations from
Ray Kurzweil and others.
Futurist of the Year
Awards
The World Future Society is now accepting nominations for outstanding
futurist of the year. The Society is seeking candidates at both the
professional and “young futurist” levels, whose work in the past year has
advanced the understanding of foresight principles and techniques or
demonstrated the successful application of foresight.
The Dawn of the
Postliterate Age
By Patrick Tucker
Information technology, cybernetics, and artificial intelligence may render
written language “functionally obsolete” by 2050. For the literate elite —
which includes everyone from Barack Obama to this spring’s MFA graduates —
the gnashing of teeth and rending of garments over the demise of reading has
become obligatory theater. Poets, writers, and teachers alike stand over the
remains of a once-proud book culture like a Greek chorus gloomily crowded
around a fallen king. How can it be that, between 1982 and 2007, reading
declined by nearly 20% for the overall U.S. population and 30% for young
adults aged 18–24, or that 40 million Americans read at the lowest literacy
level?
Plus: The Rapid Evolution of "Text"
An Atlantic author looks toward a less-literate future.
By Nicholas Carr
Futurist
Update for November 2009
"Nonmaterial" cyberspace is an increasingly material
world. … Do doctors harm their obese patients through disrespect? … New map
shows what the world is talking about right now. These stories plus a very
special announcement from the World Future Society in the November issue of
Futurist Update!
October
2009 Futurist Update
Flowers may foil
Mother Nature by blooming too soon. … AI diagnostic program could help avoid
invasive procedures. … On the Web: one-stop shopping for science and
technology news. …
These
stories and more in the October FUTURIST UPDATE.
The Singularity,
Explored
We talk to
Michael Vassar of the Singularity Institute about the upcoming
summit, the Singularity, and the technological breakthroughs of tomorrow.
More Than 200 Forecasts from The
Futurist Magazine
Each year since 1985, the editors of THE
FUTURIST have selected the most thought-provoking ideas and forecasts
appearing in the magazine to go into our annual Outlook report. Over the
years, Outlook has spotlighted the emergence of such epochal
developments as the Internet, virtual reality, and the end of the Cold
War. In anticipation of Outlook 2010, we present to you our top
forecasts from the last three years.
September
Futurist Update
Why a healthy sex life may be good for your career. ... Online textbooks
lighten kids' backpacks and states' budgets. ... U.S. life expectancy and
mortality rates break records.
These
stories and more in the September 2009 Futurist Update!
Healing Habitats
This fifth
book in Cliff Moughtin’s Urban Design series focuses on the design concepts
that will guide humanity to a more sustainable future, promote mental and
physical health, and create or provide a sense of community. Like the first
four volumes in the series, it speaks clearly and eloquently to
professionals working in the fields of urban planning and urban design.
Review by Aaron Cohen.
Visionaries
The Cinematic Singularitarian
By Patrick Tucker
Ray Kurzweil is immortal — on film. A new documentary showcases the
inventor’s provocative ideas.
Ray Kurzweil is a
WorldFuture 2010 speaker.
The Future World of Work: A Gen Xer’s Perspective
Wall Street Journal columnist Alexandra
Levit parses the job market for new grads.
How
Evolution Is Evolving
Mainstream science maintains that humans stopped evolving about 50,000
years ago. Civilization put an end to process. Therefore, the human of
the pre-modern era is the human of today and will be the human tomorrow,
right? Not so fast, say scientists Gregory Cochran and Henry Harpending.
In The 10,000 Year Explosion, they argue that humankind is
evolving even faster in the modern age. We developed new genetic traits
as recently as the Middle Ages. The Ashkenazi (or European) Jews, for
instance, don’t just seem smarter; they demonstrate a genetic
predisposition toward higher intelligence.
By Patrick Tucker
Government
Are
Small Governments Getting Too Big?
Local and state governments in the U.S. may
be restricting individual rights, from THE FUTURIST magazine.
Economics
Internet Fraud on the Rise
Spike in Internet crime complaints concerns U.S. law enforcement from THE
FUTURIST magazine.
Technology
Building the Internet of the Future
More fibers, faster downloads are key to
more capable Internet.
Tomorrow
in Brief
Ice That “Burns”
Trouble Ahead for Suburbanites?
Sunny—with a 50% Chance of Migraine!
Rising Sea Levels Will Threaten New York
WordBuzz: Open Dictionary...
from THE FUTURIST magazine.
Big
Ideas for Saving the Earth
In a new book, futurist Jamais
Cascio makes it very clear that he is not enthusiastic about climate
geoengineering and completely rejects the idea that it might be a
replacement for the economic, social, and technological changes needed
to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Yet, he says, it will likely still
be necessary.
Stephen
Thaler’s Imagination Machines
Inventor
Stephen Thaler discusses his revolutionary form of AI — a highly proficient synthetic
consciousness that has quietly existed for more than 30 years. From the
July--August issue of THE FUTURIST.
Assessing Global Trends for 2025
In
November 2008, the National Intelligence Council released a landmark
study, Global Trends 2025: A Transformed World. The report lays
out the possibility of a future very different from the reality to which
most of the world is accustomed. THE
FUTURIST asked four experts — Newt Gingrich, Elaine C. Kamarck,
Peter Schiff, and Dennis Kucinich — for their views on
the report’s key forecasts and what the future of the United States,
Asia, and the global economy looks like now, in the wake of the global
financial crisis.
PDF Version Available.
Innovation and Creativity in a Complex
World
Three dozen
forward-thinking scholars and experts contributed
these outstanding essays to
provide the “intellectual infrastructure” for the World Future Society’s
conference,
WorldFuture 2009: Innovation and Creativity in a Complex World.
Pandemic and the Future of Flu
The World Health Organization has called an H1N1 influenza pandemic
"imminent." Are governments treating the current flu with enough urgency?
Too little? Too much?
We turned to Daniel J. Barnett M.D., M.P.H., assistant
professor in the department of environmental health sciences at the
Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and Tyler Kokjohn,
professor of microbiology at Midwestern University and author of the
"In
The Shadow of Pandemic" (THE FUTURIST September-October 2006) to parse
the future of flu.
Preparing
for Pandemic
What does flu pandemic
look like? In 2006 planners and strategists were asking this same question,
but the strain in question was H5N1, and the initial carriers were birds
rather than pigs. The guidelines proposed by the World Health Organization
at that time still provide a reliable picture of what government response to
a pandemic might entail.
Free Lessons in Futuring From the World Future Society
World Future Society President Tim Mack will offer a series of ten free lessons in the use of foresight through the Web site of the World Future Society. The weekly lessons, e-mailed to subscribers, offer straightforward explanations of the futurist profession’s most useful “futuring” techniques, with practical examples of they are used and resources for finding more information.
President's Web Log
Seven Deadly Sins
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Site
Map
follow the World Future Society at http://twitter.com
Thanks for a great
conference,
session highlights
and PowerPoint demos here.
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