FUTURIST UPDATE
News & Previews from the World Future Society
October 2003
FUTURIST UPDATE
News & Previews from the World Future Society
October 2003
THE MARRIAGE OF BIOLOGY AND MATH
Future biologists will need to be better mathematicians.The breaking of the human genetic code means biologists will have ever increasing amounts of data to analyze. But to do so effectively will require a different set of skills than biologists are traditionally taught, says Florida State University math professor De Witt Sumners.
Many universities have embraced the idea of "cross-training" students, but departmental boundaries and protocols for funding research have created obstacles to interdisciplinary programs. According to Sumners, the biotechnology industry and drug companies are in particular need of scientists trained in biology and math or statistics.
"Forward-looking universities are investing in a computational approach to biology," says Sumners. "Good universities are now doing computation and experiments in the same lab. This is the wave of the future."
SOURCE: Florida State University, http://www.fsu.edu/~unicomm/ZAPPING INFOTECH PROBLEMS
"If we do not save resources, Earth's population will be forced to colonize two planets by 2050," warns a company hoping to help you "zap" your resource-depleting information technology and staffing problems.We all know that better e-mail and Web surfing habits at work could improve our companies' bottom lines, but it could also help save the future, according to Zapit, an IT management consultant company.
Zapit's newsletter, written as a look back from 30 years in the future, depicts a paperless world where people might be arrested for sending advertising flyers; a "matter transfer" device allowing objects to be e-mailed anywhere in the world, saving transportation costs; and a museum exhibit of an office--a place people once traveled hours to in order to gossip and flirt instead of working.
In addition to improving e-mail and Web usage, Zapit helps companies deal with employee alcohol and drug abuse, smoking, obesity, stress, and other time- and resource-consuming problems that are impairing the world's future.
SOURCE: Zapit, http://www.zapit.orgBIG FUTURES FOR SOLO BUSINESSES
Looking for good career growth potential? Work for no one. Businesses with no paid employees grew by 2.7% in the United States between 2000 and 2001, reports the U.S. Census Bureau.Small "mom-and-pop" businesses make up more than 70% of all U.S. businesses. Among the fastest growing are beauty salons (up 4.8%), child-care providers (4.4%), landscaping services (4.2%), barber shops (3.6%), real estate agents (2.0%), and tax preparers (1.8%).
SOURCE: United States Department of Commerce, Bureau of the Census, http://www.census.gov/Press-Release/www/2003/cb03-141.html
WHAT FUTURE WILL YOU CREATE? If you've ever experienced one of the World Future Society's exciting annual meetings, you know how empowering they can be.
"Creating the Future Now!" is the theme of the next meeting, "World Future 2004," and the workshops, presentations, and special events promise to give you not only the inspiration to create a better tomorrow, but the tools--and the aides-de-camp--to build it!
WorldFuture 2004 will be held July 31 through August 2 at the Grand Hyatt Washington; the Professional Members' Forum follows on August 3.
There is still time to create the future by submitting a proposal of your own: the proposal deadline is October 31, 2003.
DETAILS: http://www.wfs.org/2004main.htmREGISTER (Save $230 before September 30 and $200 before December 31): https://www.wfs.org/2004regfrm.htm
TRAFFIC ACCIDENTS KILL MORE THAN A MILLION A YEAR
More than one million people a year are killed on the world's roads, and ten times as many become disabled. By 2020, road traffic injuries will be the third largest cause of "disease" in the world, according to a research team led by epidemiologist Ian Roberts of the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.How should we avert this catastrophic forecast? Additional driver education is the usual solution, but Roberts's team thinks this is the wrong road.
After a driver has passed a driving test, additional education does little to make that individual or the public any safer, the researchers concluded from their analysis of two dozen separate studies conducted over the past four decades.
"If you want to prevent road death, driver education is not the answer," says Roberts. "All the education in the world won't change the fact that the traffic environment is dangerous. It makes more sense to work toward safer transport systems. We need less traffic in our towns and cities with more walking and cycling and better public transport."
SOURCE: The Cochrane Library (Issue 3, 2003), http://www.cochrane.org/cochrane/revabstr/AB003734.htmDRAMATIC FINANCIAL PROBLEMS FOR THEATERS
Theaters face a precarious financial future in the wake of the terrorist threats, wars, and economic downturn that greeted the new millennium. And yet, support for theater is growing.Patrons of the arts were more generous in supporting America's nonprofit theaters, according to the Theatre Communications Group's 2002 report. Annual contributions increased by nearly 48% in the past five years. Total attendance also increased, by 17%, even though the number of performances dropped.
However, more than half of the theaters surveyed ended the year with a deficit, as expenses increased at double-digit rates. The numbers will be even worse in the next few years as they reflect the outcomes of capital campaigns that began after 2001-2002.
Among the more-positive trends in the report: The number of weeks that actors were employed increased by 11% over the five-year period studied, and educational programs more than tripled, suggesting that more theaters are building up audiences for the future.
SOURCE: Theatre Facts 2002, Theatre Communications Group, http://www.tcg.org/programs/files/theatrefacts_2002.pdfCLICK OF THE MONTH: ATLAS OF CYBERSPACE,
http://www.cybergeography.org/atlas/atlas.htmlBeyond the PC, laptop, or Web-enabled device you're using to access the Internet there is a whole world of connected "places." What does this cyber-landscape look like?
While the Atlas of Cyberspaces may not tell you how to get there from here, it illustrates a variety of paths that others have taken. You'll see samples of individual Web site maps as well as illustrations of the ripple effects of a session of surfing across multiple sites.
Anyone involved in designing a Web site or in developing graphic representations of complex information will find inspiration in the maps presented here. As with any good atlas, many of the images appearing on this site are works of art in and of themselves.
And for real-world map lovers, a print edition of THE ATLAS OF CYBERSPACE is also available: http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0201745755/thefuturistbooks
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TOP FORECASTS OF THE YEAR
Coming up in THE FUTURIST magazine is the annual OUTLOOK report, a roundup of the year's most thought-provoking forecasts. Here are a few of the editors' favorites:
- Genetically modified crops may surpass natural crops in acreage planted by 2020.
- Two-thirds of the world's population will be chronically short of water by 2050.
- "Gait analysis"--watching how you walk--could soon join fingerprinting and retina scans in the security toolbox.
- Earthquakes will become deadlier in the future since they will have growing numbers of heavily populated megacities to target.
- Polar bears could become extinct in the next 100 years as global warming melts their Arctic hunting grounds.
OUTLOOK 2004 appears in the November-December 2003 issue of THE FUTURIST, which mails to subscribers after October 6. Join the World Future Society or renew your membership now so you won't miss it! WFS MEMBERSHIP: http://www.wfs.org/member.htm
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FUTURIST UPDATE: News & Previews from the World Future Society is an e-mail newsletter published monthly as a supplement to THE FUTURIST magazine. Copyright © 2003, World Future Society, 7910 Woodmont Avenue, Suite 450, Bethesda, MD 20814, U.S.A. Telephone 1-301-656-8274; 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 25,000 members worldwide. Membership in the Society, including a subscription to THE FUTURIST magazine and numerous other benefits, is just $45 per yea r ($20 for full-time students under age 25).
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.