Cynthia Wagner's blog

We would be in a Golden Age for innovation, were it not for beggar-thy-neighbor national policies in the global innovation race. Encouraging the theft of intellectual property, discriminating against foreign tech firms, and manipulating currency are among the practices referred to as innovation mercantilism.

We at World Future Society were saddened to see the news early this morning that legendary science-fiction author Ray Bradbury died yesterday at the age of 91. According to our founder, Edward Cornish, Bradbury was one of the first members of the World Future Society. ("The Search For Foresight: The Society's First Members")

Celebrity Apprentice has crowned a new Trump champion, a faux partner in the business of celebritizing business. So it's time to see if there are in fact any teachable moments. I count six lessons to learn (or unlearn).

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
(WFS Members, log in for full access)

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.