Cynthia Wagner's blog

When imagining the changes we may see by the turn of the next century, we might no longer find it very useful to look back to changes occurring in the same amount of time in the past. Eighty-eight years ago, in 1924, movies were silent, and the Great Depression was an inconceivable wild card. But change is accelerating exponentially, as The Singularity Is Near author Ray Kurzweil has argued, and the next 88 years could see the equivalent of the last 10,000 years worth of change.

The only time I'm tempted to use the expression "The future is now" is when I see a story about a "new" trend or development or prediction, such as today's Technology Review blog piece on the idea of a marketplace for personal information. See "A Stock Exchange for Your Personal Data" by Jessica Leber, posted May 1 at Technology Review's Computing blog.

What if we treated the human body as well as car lovers tend their treasured old Volkswagen Beetles? It would mean continuous maintenance, repairing even the most minor bits of damage before they accumulate and ultimately lead to the body’s demise.

The World Future Society was saddened to learn last week of the death of our longtime volunteer and consultant, Howard F. Didsbury Jr. He died of pneumonia, following a long illness, on March 17, 2012. He was 87.

About the March-April 2012 issue of THE FUTURIST
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With a burgeoning economy that may no longer be providing good jobs, and a growing demand for energy sources that are clean, affordable, and safe, the future’s many challenges elude easy solutions—at least, solutions that we might all agree on and that don’t create new problems.

Thirty years ago today, I started work at the World Future Society. My title was to be "editorial assistant," and my starting salary was six figures--counting both sides of the decimal point. It was a recession, and I'd just finished my master's work at Syracuse in magazine journalism. I was happy to be employed, and happy to be back home in Bethesda.

Back from Round House Theater's production of Ray Bradbury's futuristic classic, Fahrenheit 451, with special multimedia effects that really do make that future feel now.

The books on leadership will tell you that the best time to think about your legacy is at the beginning of your tenure at the top. Another good time is right before you squander it with misbehavior, but that's not my subject today.

I was recently asked to take the reins of a small, venerable little organization, whose dedicated membership had dwindled to a handful of enthusiasts: The Shakespeare Readers.

Yesterday I got to see Designing Tomorrow: America's World's Fairs of the 1930s exhibit at the National Building Museum in Washington, D.C., conveniently located across from the Judiciary Square Metro stop.

Every now and then I need to pick up a back issue of THE FUTURIST to check a quotation, reference, or some idea that's being discussed in the issue we're working on now.