More men than women go online in all countries surveyed recently for UCLA's World Internet Project.

Internet use is highest among both men and women in the United States (73.1% and 69% respectively), Sweden (67.7% and 64.4%), Korea (67.8% and 53.8%), and Britain (63.6% and 55%). Internet use is less prevalent in Taiwan (25.1% among men and 23.5% among women) and Hungary (20.3% and 15.1%).

Researcher Jeffrey Cole observes that the seemingly universal digital gender gap "is not as large as we might have expected, given the gender disparities that persist around the world. However, in several technologically developed countries, the gap is surprisingly large--in some cases almost twice as many men as women use the Internet."

Cole also notes surprisingly high levels of online use among the poorest citizens of those countries surveyed, including China, where people are finding new ways around government restrictions to reach out to others. The Internet will thus likely have increasingly important impacts on China's cultural landscape, the study suggests.

The UCLA World Internet Project is the first survey of its kind to produce international comparison data on the social, political, and economic effects of Internet use and non-use.

Source: World Internet Project, UCLA Center for Communication Policy, http://www.ccp.ucla.edu

BEYOND SAME-SEX MARRIAGE

The legalization of same-sex marriages may prepare the way for even more radical unions in the future, according to Canadian professor Stephen Bertman. He foresees the possibility of marriage between humans and their household pets or even inanimate objects such as a beloved car or computer.

"Many an individual has formed an intimate relationship with his or her computer, spending long hours in its close company, often to the exclusion of human contact," writes Bertman, a cultural historian, in the March-April 2004 issue of THE FUTURIST. "Why should not this bond of tactile intimacy be validated by more than an owner's manual?"

Already, many people name pets as beneficiaries to their estates or make arrangements for them to be taken care of upon the owner's death. And many states already require pets to be licensed, with proof that the pets have had rabies shots and/or have been neutered. Marriage with pets would be an extension of these state-sanctioned responsibilities.

"The possibility of interspecies marriages," Bertman explains, "is meant to suggest that the concept of marriage as a socially and spiritually sanctioned partnership need not be restricted to humans alone."

READ EXCERPT: http://www.wfs.org/excerptma04.htm
ORDER THE MARCH-APRIL 2004 ISSUE: https://www.wfs.org/futuristorder.htm

CLIMATE WARMING AND DEFORESTATION

Rates of tree growth and death have doubled in the remote, pristine Amazon forests in recent decades, leading to an increase in biomass in the Amazon Basin, according to papers published by Britain's Royal Society.

The increase in biomass may have helped slow global climate change, but computer simulations suggest that this process could be reversed in short order as deforestation and other human pressures accelerate. Already, some rain forests are becoming more fragmented and vulnerable to forest fires, which lead to loss of fruit-eating monkeys and insect-eating birds.

Scientists contributing to the papers urge conservation to prevent fragmentation and a greater commitment to move away from burning fossil fuels.

"This research shows that conservation of the remaining rain forests will need to take into account the new pressures that global atmospheric change is placing on these forests," says Yadvinder Malhi, co-editor of the journal Royal Society Transactions B.

Jeremy Rifkin, founder and president of the Foundation on Economic Trends, will describe the potential impacts of a Hydrogen Economy at the opening session of the World Future Society's 2004 annual meeting.

As previously announced, Ray Kurzweil will also address the opening plenary session, offering his insights on the coming merger of humans and machines. Kurzweil is an award-winning inventor and high-tech entrepreneur, whose Web site KurzweilAI.net is a leading provider of resources on artificial intelligence.

Switching from a menu of seals and salmon to steaks and sweetened soft drinks could be behind an increase in depression among Alaska natives over the past 50 years, according to University of Alaska biologist Abel Bult-Ito.

As new transportation and communication technologies brought "modern" lifestyles to Alaska natives, traditional diets high in omega-3 fatty acids and antioxidants have diminished while new diet-related ailments such as diabetes and heart disease have grown. Mental-health problems, too, have emerged, notes Bult-Ito.

Several studies have linked depression to lower levels of fish consumption. Suicide rates for Canadian Inuit from 1987 to 1991 were nearly four times higher than the rate for the rest of Canada. And Alaska natives also experienced higher rates of seasonal affective disorder and depression than did native communities in Iceland and northern Finland that have remained less exposed to Western culture.

While cultural encroachment may be irreversible, diets can be controlled, and switching back to an omega-3 rich diet of seals, salmon, other marine mammals, and marine birds and eggs may be what the doctor ordered.

Are you doing what you want to do? Are you on the right path to do what you want to in the future? Find out where you are, where you're going, and how to get there with a Career Fitness Check on the Future of Work Program site.

The program was launched by Britain's Economic and Social Research Council in 1993 to assist business, policy makers, and individuals in understanding the trends shaping work and employment to help ensure sufficient employment opportunities for future generations. The program supports research projects covering such topics as the future of unskilled work, the nature of home-working, the care of the elderly, and the forces of globalization.

In addition to the Career Fitness Check, the Future of Work site offers links to research papers, conference summaries, and presentations.

IMPACTS OF BREAKTHROUGH TECHNOLOGIES

The Arlington Institute will sponsor a two-day seminar examining "Breakthrough Technologies for the World’s Biggest Problems," to be held April 27-28 in Arlington, Virginia. The seminar will feature Ray Kurzweil, Hunter Lovins, Eric Drexler, and others invited to speak about the big problems and opportunities in the coming years. A collection of extraordinary breakthrough technologies for solving global problems will also be showcased.

"The future of humanity is inextricably linked to technology," says John L. Petersen, president of the Arlington Institute. "The future of the globe pivots on the kinds of tools we do or do not create in the coming years. Enlightened people with old tools will be significantly limited in what they can do to change the planetary footprint. We have to learn how to utilize new breakthrough technologies to solve our biggest, intractable problems--and not kill ourselves in the process."

DETAILS: http://www.arlingtoninstitute.org/springseminar2004/aprilCon_home.asp