March-April 2008

THE FUTURIST

March-April 2008
Volume 42, No. 2
Order the March-April 2008 edition

Cover Story

THE AI CHASERS

By Patrick Tucker
The arrival of human-level artificial intelligence, should it come to pass, promises to generate tremendous wealth for the companies and inventors that bring it to market. How close are we to a human-level AI? Who's tilling the soil of this brave new world? Anhd, aside from its monetary implications, what will the rise of this advanced AI mean for the future?
PDF available.

Trends Shaping Tomorrow's World: Forecasts and Implications for Business, Government, and Consumers (Part One)

by Marvin J. Cetron and Owen Davies
This special report (first of two parts) updates the major trends that have been tracked in a four-decade research project by Forecasting International. Trends covered in part 1 include the growth of the economy in the developed world, the redistribution of global population through mass migration, the loss of privacy--and the demand for it, and the continuing growth in demand for oil. The authors summarize the implications of each trend and include commentaries from professional futurists and experts in relevant fields.
PDF available.

The Future of the Jews and Israel: An Optimistic Vision

by Tsvi Bisk
For a historically oppressed people, the twenty-first century's "flatness" offers opportunities for Jewish individuals to realize their potential without sacrificing their Jewishness. In this optimistic "imagineered" future, an Israeli futurist examines the resilience of Jewish culture, economic success, and the sense of "belonging" to a larger community that unites the many nodes of the global Jewish Diaspora. PDF available.

Navigating the New Adulthood

by Richard A. Settersten Jr.
This isn't you're grandfather's 'old age'! The typical life-course pattern has altered in recent decades, as individuals increasingly choose when to go to school, when to retire, when to raise families, and so on. These choices give individuals more freedom but cause problems for policy makers who, for instance, need to specify a "retirement age" for distributing benefits equitably. Many of the life-course decisions are influenced by socioeconomic class rather than by age, suggesting new mind-sets are needed to improve on antiquated age-based policy making.
PDF available.

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