SEE YOUR FUTURE SELF IN A VIRTUAL MIRROR
Want to get a glimpse of what you'll look like in
five years? Researchers at Accenture Technology's laboratory in France are developing a
digital visualization of what junk food, excess alcohol, and lack of exercise will do to
your looks.
To start with, Accenture’s system acts like a sophisticated mirror,
capturing your image by wireless camera and displaying it in front of you. Then a computer
builds a profile of your lifestyle by using a network of high-resolution cameras and
asking you questions about what you are eating and drinking. Once the computer has built a
profile of your food, alcohol, and exercise choices, a different software package will
extrapolate how your behavior is likely to affect your future weight and appearance.
If you are drinking too much alcohol, for instance, you can expect to
see early wrinkles and blotchy skin. This "futuring mirror" may help people
visualize long-term outcomes of their behavior, serving as an effective way to motivate
change.
Accenture hopes to have the prototype mirror finished in mid-2005.
SOURCE: The New Scientist,
http://www.newscientist.com/article.ns?id=mg18524856.200
JOBS BOOM FORESEEN IN SOLAR INDUSTRIES
The job outlook looks bright for solar industries, with some 42,000 new
jobs by 2015, according to the Solar Energy Industries Association.
Solar energy could be the best way to ease the looming natural gas
crisis and become the economic choice for energy for millions of people in the next
decade, the Association told a congressional subcommittee recently.
With natural gas demand and prices skyrocketing, SEIA president Rhone
Resch says that solar power could displace 6 trillion cubic feet of natural gas by 2025,
saving U.S. consumers approximately $64 billion.
He also predicts that the solar industry could employ 260,000 people by
2030 and generate more than $34 billion in new manufacturing investments over the next 10
years.
SOURCE: Solar Energy Industries Association,
http://www.seia.org/news/releases.asp?id=44
INDO-AUSTRALIAN TECTONIC PLATE AT RISK
The geological forces behind the Sumatran quake and tsunami of December
2004 may have even more destruction in store, warns a team of researchers led by Mike
Sandiford at the University of Melbourne’s School of Earth Sciences.
"The Indian Ocean quakes are, in effect, leading to the active
rupture of the Indo-Australian plate into separate Indian and Australian plates,"
says Sandiford. "This new research provides us with important information about the
stresses that are driving this drawn-out tectonic plate divorce."
The Indo-Australian plate is one of the eight major plates upon which
all the continents and oceans lie. These plates "float" on the currents of the
earth's upper mantle, whose movements are the driving force behind plate motion and
earthquake activity.
Sandiford and his colleagues studied stresses generated along two
tectonic segments between the Indo-Australian and Eurasian plate borders. They found that
about 90% of the energy released when the plates rub up against each other is dissipated
deep within the earth’s mantle; the remaining 10% of the energy thrusts back into the
Indo-Australian plate, generating potentially destructive seismic activity that could lead
to its breakup.
SOURCE: The University of Melbourne,
http://uninews.unimelb.edu.au/articleid_2071.html
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CONFERENCE UPDATE--HURRY TO SAVE $150!
More speakers have been added to the program for the World Future
Society's 2005 annual meeting, including former assistant secretary of commerce Kelly H.
Carnes, former U.S. Ambassador to NATO Harlan Cleveland, Shaping Tomorrow chairman Michael
Jackson, and World Futures Studies Federation chairman Richard A. Slaughter.
"WorldFuture 2005: Foresight, Innovation, and
Strategy" will be held July 29-31 in Chicago. Be sure to register before
February 28 to save $150 off the on-site fee!
All registrants will receive a complimentary copy of FORESIGHT,
INNOVATION, AND STRATEGY, a volume of thought-provoking essays prepared
especially for the conference. The volume will also be available for sale after the
meeting.
LEARN MORE: http://www.wfs.org/2005main.htm
DOWNLOAD brochure: http://www.wfs.org/WorldFuture2005_January.pdf
REGISTRATION NOW: https://www.wfs.org/2005regfrm.htm
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PROMOTING ARTS APPRECIATION
Investment in the arts could be viewed as an investment in social
capital. A RAND Corporation study finds that appreciation of the arts is the first step
toward establishing such skills as learning, empathy, and building stronger social bonds
in communities.
The report recommends that federal, state, and local policy be refocused
to build demand for the arts by introducing more people to engaging arts experiences,
especially when they are young.
"We hope that future policies focus on cultivating the demand for
the arts, rather than the supply," says RAND social scientist Kevin McCarthy. "A
demand-side approach would build a market for the arts by helping people personally
experience its benefits and understand how arts can improve their quality of life."
The report recommends promoting early exposure to the arts through
schools and community programs, since early childhood arts experiences stimulate high
levels of emotional, mental, and sometimes social engagement.
SOURCE: RAND Corporation,
http://www.rand.org/news/press.05/02.15.html
CLICK
OF THE MONTH: CLIMATEPREDICTION.NET
http://climateprediction.net
We may still not be able to do anything about the weather, but people
are now collaborating to do a better job of predicting the climate.
Climateprediction.net is an ambitious experiment in international
collaboration to create, test, and deploy the best possible models of the global climate
to forecast changes for the twenty-first century.
Participants use their own computers to run the models, with each
simulation taking perhaps a few days. The results are reported back automatically to
climate researchers at Oxford University and collaborating institutions. Through this
collaboration, more than 4 million model years have been simulated using 8,000 years of
computing time.
The project itself offers a model of global networking and
collaboration, as well as a spirit of cooperation for tackling issues affecting our common
future, including food production, water resources, energy demand, and much more.
NEWS FROM THE FUTURES COMMUNITY
- FEDERAL FORECASTERS CONFERENCE: A free conference on the impacts of
international trends on governmental forecasts and forecasting will be held April 21 in
Washington, D.C. The 2005 Federal Forecasters Conference will focus on how major global
forces can be identified and incorporated into projections and plans of importance to
public policy. Topics to be covered include foreign trade, consumption trends, global
aging, forecasting methodologies, and much more. Registration deadline is March 1.
- DETAILS: http://www.federalforecasters.org
- TECHNOLOGY’S EFFECT ON HUMAN INTERACTION:
Technology is bringing people together, not driving them apart. "We are just at the
beginning of a wave of self-organizing digital communities" which will bring people
with common interests together regardless of where they are, says Timothy C. Mack,
president of the World Future Society. "Technology can allow creation of digital
spaces for shared interests and new digital communities." Mack is a guest columnist
at the Web site for the Institute for the Future at Anne Arundel Community College. Read
his complete remarks on the future of communication and community at
http://www.aacc.edu/future/askfuturetmack.cfm
- CALL FOR SPEAKERS AND PAPERS: Networking into the Future
is the theme of the Fundacion para la Educación Superior Internacional's conference in
Veracruz, Mexico, July 21-23. The meeting will address issues that higher education
institutions face in the knowledge society and economy. DETAILS: Josue Cortes,
president and CEO, FESI, http://www.fesi.org.mx
