FUTURIST UPDATE
News & Previews from the World Future Society
June 2002

IN THIS ISSUE: *  Flash Reading * Limitless Life Expectancy? * Anti-Antiaging Hype * Summer Reading for Futurists * Clicks of the Month: Atlas Updates, Chiefs of State

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FLASH READING
As mobile devices shrink, the tiny displays make it hard to read text messages. Now, an old technology may come to the rescue: Rapid Serial Visual Presentation (RSVP). The technique displays one word at a time, taking very little space on a monitor but allowing the user to read at adjustable speeds of 200 to 1,000 words a minute or faster.

Human Factors International has developed an RSVP-based java applet called FlashReader. You won't want to read the complete works of Shakespeare this way, but stock prices, e-mail, and weather forecasts will come through efficiently.

Test the FlashReader demo at Human Factors International, http://www.humanfactors.com/library/flashreader.asp

LAST CHANCE TO SAVE $70! REGISTER NOW FOR 2002 CONFERENCE SAVE $70 by registering before June 30 for the World Future Society's 2002 annual meeting WORLDVIEW 2002: FUTURES UNLIMITED! to be held July 20-22 in Philadelphia.

LIMITLESS LIFE EXPECTANCY?
The rate at which life expectancies are increasing in the developed world has remained "remarkably constant," suggesting not only that life spans could approach 100 years within about six decades, but also that there may be no natural limit on human life expectancy, according to researchers from Duke and Cambridge universities.

Life expectancy in such countries as Norway, Sweden, Japan, Iceland, and the United States is increasing by three months a year every year, according to population researchers James W. Vaupel of Duke and Jim Oeppen of Cambridge. If trends continue, we could see a four-decade increase in life expectancy in the next 16 decades.

As centenarians become far more commonplace, policy makers will need to examine the implications for budget allocations and priorities. "Experts have been unable to imagine a life span that could rise further," according to Vaupel and Oeppen. This notion of a fixed life span "is distorting public and private decision making."

With "no natural limits" to our life expectancies for the foreseeable future, however, we still cannot expect immortality. After all, people do die from accidents, diseases, disasters, or dastardly deeds. DETAILS: http://dukenews.duke.edu/policy/vaupelage.htm

ANTI-ANTIAGING HYPE
The growing quest for antiaging remedies is creating its own set of problems. There has been a dangerous outbreak of purveyors of therapies, treatments, and elixirs, warn 51 scientists signing a position statement in the June issue of SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN magazine. "Anyone purporting to offer an antiaging product today is either mistaken or lying," they write.

The scientists urge the public to educate itself on legitimate biomedical research to slow the aging process, the goal of which "should not be the mere extension of life. It should be to prolong the duration of healthy life." DETAILS: http://sciam.com/explorations/2002/051302aging

SUMMER READING FOR FUTURISTS
When school's out, continue learning with this rich assortment of future-oriented books. Pack several for your trip to the World Future Society's conference in Philadelphia!

ISAAC ASIMOV: It's Been a Good Life, edited by Janet Jeppson Asimov, offers a collection of deeply personal essays by one of the twentieth century's great futurist writers. Topics include religion, science-fiction fans, writing, the Bible, Shakespeare, humanism, and Asimov's heart attack. His widow, Janet (a devoted futurist in her own right), provides comments and explanations as well as an epilogue revealing "the true story of Isaac's final illness and death."

ADVANCING FUTURES: Futures Studies in Higher Education, edited by James A. Dator (Hawaii Research Center for Futures Studies, University of Hawaii-Manoa), provides a comprehensive "state of the art" of futures-studies theory, methodology, and practice around the world. Among the distinguished contributors to this important resource are Peter Bishop of the University of Houston-Clear Lake, Wendell Bell of Yale University, Ikram Azam of the Pakistan Futuristics Foundation and Institute, William E. Halal of George Washington University, Sohail Inayatullah of the Center for Futures Studies at Taiwan's Tamkang University, Eleonora Masini of the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome, and Richard A. Slaughter of the Future Study Center in Melbourne. ORDER NOW

TECHNOMANIFESTOS: Visions from the Information Revolutionaries by Adam Brate profiles the extraordinary individuals who led the way to the Information Age, from Norbert Wiener, Vannevar Bush, Alan Turing, and John von Neumann to Marshall McLuhan, Alan C. Kay, and Tim Berners-Lee. Concludes with an exploration of the potential impacts of nanotechnology and other developments, as viewed by K. Eric Drexler, Bill Joy, and others. ORDER NOW

DISTANT WANDERERS: The Search for Planets Beyond the Solar System by Bruce Dorminey predicts that within the next 50 years astronomers will resolve the question of whether there are Earth-like planets circling Sun-like stars--and hence whether intelligent life beyond our planet and solar system is possible, even if it is a long shot. ORDER NOW

THE LIVING WORKPLACE: Soul, Spirit and Success in the 21st Century by Ann Coombs prescribes how corporations must treat their employees or risk losing their talent. "The old business model of 'employer tell--employee do' is changing," she warns. What the new, more spiritual worker wants is, foremost, to be treated with integrity and not be lied to. "Invest in developing environments of regard, integrity, honesty, and long-lasting value," Coombs advises. "Live with courage and speak a language of regard." ORDER NOW

THE CYBERUNION HANDBOOK: Transforming Labor Through Computer Technology, edited by Arthur B. Shostak (chairman of the World Future Society's 2002 meeting in Philadelphia), shows how labor organizations can adopt futuristics, innovations, services, and traditions (FIST) to better serve members' interests. "Union activists are natural futurists," notes Shostak. "They are always second-guessing what the boss, the company, the industry, and the economy--to say nothing of their spouse and children--will do next." ORDER NOW

CLICKS OF THE MONTH: ATLAS UPDATES, CHIEFS OF STATE

The world changes quickly: Maps are redrawn, regimes remapped.
East Timor just gained independence (May 20), so the National Geographic Society offers a printable map update that you can patch onto your own copy of the NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC ATLAS OF THE WORLD. Other map updates you can download include the recently defined boundary line separating Saudi Arabia and Yemen and a map reflecting Mt. Everest's elevation based on new global positioning satellite data.
CLICK: http://www.nationalgeographic.com/maps/atlas_updates.html     ORDER THE ATLAS

To help you keep up with who's running the world, the Central Intelligence Agency weekly updates its online database of world leaders. In addition to current monarchs, presidents, or prime ministers, you can easily find the name of Liberia's minister of gender development, Estonia's central bank president, or Afghanistan's minister of martyrs and the disabled.
CLICK: http://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/chiefs/index.html

COMMENT: National Geographic, a nongovernmental organization, wins kudos for acknowledging East Timor first. The CIA had not yet included information about the newly independent state when this issue of FUTURIST UPDATE was being prepared.

WHAT'S NEXT IN THE FUTURIST
Researcher Gregory Stock argues that attempts to ban biomedical research are premature--and could do society more harm than good.

Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan describes what we can do to help more people reach their financial goals.

And British IT futurist Ian Pearson gives us a glimpse of the next 40 years of innovation in The Technology Timeline.

All this and more in the July-August 2002 issue of THE FUTURIST, which mails to subscribers June 3. ORDER NOW

FUTURIST UPDATE: News & Previews from the World Future Society is an e-mail newsletter published monthly as a supplement to THE FUTURIST magazine. Copyright (c) 2002, World Future Society, 7910 Woodmont Avenue, Suite 450, Bethesda, MD 20814, U.S.A. Telephone 1-301-656-8274; e-mail mailto:info@wfs.org; Web site http://www.wfs.org.

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Send feedback or contributions to Cindy Wagner, editor  mailto:cwagner@wfs.org.

THE WORLD FUTURE SOCIETY is a nonprofit, nonpartisan scientific and educational association with some 30,000 members worldwide. Membership in the Society, including a subscription to THE FUTURIST magazine and numerous other benefits, is just $45 per year. For more information on the Society and all its programs, publications, and services, contact Membership Director Susan Echard, mailto:sechard@wfs.org, or visit http://www.wfs.org.

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