News & Previews from the World Future Society
August 2005 (Vol. 6, No. 8)

In This Issue:
• Wilderness and Cell Phones
• Noise and Language Development
• "Robust" U.S. Economic Growth Foreseen for Next Three Years
• Making Literacy Meaningful
• Click of the Month: New American Dream
• Signs of Resilience of the Human Spirit
• News from WFS Partners and the Futures Community

WILDERNESS AND CELL PHONES

Trips to the peace and quiet of national parklands in the future may be interrupted by an increasingly familiar sound of civilization: the chirp of cell phones.

U.S. National Park Service officials are now inviting the telecoms to erect cell towers in parklands so that staff and visitors can stay in touch with one another. The argument is that this will enhance the safety of all concerned. But a public employees' environmental-advocacy group argues that no safety worries had ever been raised until telecom companies began approaching the Park Service to erect their towers.

"With no national debate and almost zero public input, our national parks are simply giving away whatever solitude and serenity remains," says Jeff Ruch, executive director of Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility.

SOURCE: Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility, http://www.peer.org/news/news_id.php?row_id=536

NOISE AND LANGUAGE DEVELOPMENT

Even a little background noise can interrupt an infant's concentration enough to interfere with language learning, according to a study by Purdue University.

Just as older adults with hearing loss struggle to follow a conversation at a cocktail party, children can be frustrated by noise distractions, such as the sound of other children playing or watching television. For infants, such noises may distract them away from learning language when their parents are talking to them.

"This is the first study to show how children are easily distracted when the background noise is at the same loudness as the person talking to the child," says George Hollich, director of Purdue's Infant Language Laboratory. "We found that even soft noise can be a problem."

SOURCE: Purdue University
http://news.uns.purdue.edu/UNS/html4ever/2005/050615.Hollich.infant.html

"ROBUST" U.S. ECONOMIC GROWTH FORESEEN FOR NEXT THREE YEARS

Despite the drag caused by spiking energy costs, the United States will see "robust economic growth" of an average of 3.5% through 2007, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA).

Factors that could put the brakes on this robust growth include higher oil prices, higher inflation, and more aggressive tightening of credit by the Federal Reserve Board.

A widely predicted puncturing of the housing bubble does not seem to be on the horizon just yet, the MBA suggests. Home sales continue to break records, and long-term interest rates remain low by historical standards, supporting real estate activity, notes MBA chief economist Doug Duncan. However, home price appreciation will likely moderate over the next two years, and sales are expected to pull back.

SOURCE: Mortgage Bankers Association, http://www.mortgagebankers.org/news/2005/pr0712.html

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2005 WORLD FUTURE SOCIETY CONFERENCE UPDATE

The World Future Society's 2005 conference gets into full swing in Chicago on Friday, July 29, but the staff will be available on site to assist conference goers starting Tuesday afternoon.

The Chicago Hilton Hotel and Towers is located at 720 South Michigan Avenue, south of East Balbo Drive. Telephone 312-922-4400.

For conference information, call the hotel and ask for Susan Echard, the World Future Society's vice president for membership and conference operations.

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MAKING LITERACY MEANINGFUL

More than 10,000 Dominican families have participated in literacy programs tailored to meet their specific needs and those of their communities.

The programs, developed by ProLiteracy Worldwide and supported by Verizon, offer learners the opportunity to study together as families and to apply their literacy skills to meet real-world needs, such as for micro-businesses, health, or community building. Programs for women, for example, may include motivational materials and resources for health, parenting, and women's rights; a program for rural learners would incorporate instruction projects on crops and livestock.

"Beyond teaching essential skills, these programs also are preparing participants for self-sufficiency and setting them on a course to more fulfilling lives," says Jorge Ivan Ramirez, president of Verizon Dominicana.

SOURCE: ProLiteracy Worldwide, http://www.proliteracy.org/news/index.asp?aid=122

CLICK OF THE MONTH: NEW AMERICAN DREAM
http://www.newdream.org

"Live consciously, buy wisely, and make a difference" are the ingredients for living out a "dream" life that is personally empowering and socially responsible, according to the Center for the New American Dream.

The Center's mission is to help "Americans consume responsibly to protect the environment, enhance quality of life, and promote social justice."

Through its Web site, the Center offers a host of resources, including strategies for reducing junk mail, links to companies' ethical ratings, articles on how to do more with less, and message boards for sharing philosophies, experiences, and even tips on how to talk to others about "new dream" ideas "without sounding preachy."

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SPACE FOOD GOES GOURMET

Hungry for a juicy story about space travel? In the September-October issue of THE FUTURIST, read how the European Space Agency hopes to make meals a little more palatable on future long-term missions. The food will have to be not only nutritious, but also easily prepared from staples that astronauts will need to grow themselves, such as rice, tomatoes, wheat, and--yummy--algae.

Other stories in this issue cover agricultural biotech, Americans' use of time, Alzheimer's disease, religion in the infotech age, and the age wave's impacts on prisons, campuses, and other public institutions.

THE FUTURIST will be mailed to subscribers after August 2. To ensure you receive your copy, join or renew your membership now: https://www.wfs.org/membord2.htm
Single copies of THE FUTURIST may also be purchased: https://www.wfs.org/futuristorder.htm

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SIGNS OF RESILIENCE OF THE HUMAN SPIRIT

A Web site devoted to images of people proclaiming that "We're Not Afraid" of terrorists grew quickly after the July 7 attacks in London, offering an inspiring example of the human spirit and mass resolve.
(Visit http://www.werenotafraid.com)

Meanwhile, NASA is resuming its mission of the human exploration of space, after many delays following the catastrophic loss of the space shuttle Columbia in 2003. That tragedy cast a shadow of fear over the costs of sending humans into space, but now we are ready to "Return to Flight." (Visit http://www.nasa.gov/returntoflight/main/index.html)

The future will no doubt see more catastrophes interrupting our lives and our dreams, but as these two projects demonstrate, the human future will not be thwarted by fear.

NEWS FROM WFS PARTNERS AND THE FUTURES COMMUNITY

• MASTERS OF STRATEGIC FORESIGHT: A new master's of arts program is being launched by Regent University's School of Leadership Studies. The fully accredited online study program in futures studies will begin with the fall 2006 semester. The program will be coordinated by Jay Gary and will build on the expertise of such futurist educators as Peter Bishop and Wendy Schultz.
DETAILS: Regent University, http://www.regent.edu/acad/sls/newsandevents/spotlight/msf.htm

• WORKFORCE RESEARCH: Strategic business futurists Joyce Gioia and Roger Herman have been named co-executive directors of the new Human Capital Research Institute, with a "mandate to initiate forward-looking research into key human capital issues." Gioia and Herman have spoken at several World Future Society conferences, and Herman serves as THE FUTURIST's contributing editor for workplace and workforce trends.
DETAILS: Human Capital Institute, http://www.humancapitalinstitute.org/hci/press.guid?_releaseID=23562

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