FUTURISTS ASK: CAN THE WRITTEN WORD SURVIVE THE 21ST CENTURY 

     Bethesda, MD: Newspapers are losing readers as quickly as media companies are recasting themselves as multimedia outlets. What do these trends mean for the art of the word and the role of text in the twenty-first century? For its March-April issue THE FUTURIST magazine went to Michael Rogers, futurist in residence for the New York Times Company and columnist for MSNBC.com, as well as Megatrends author John Naisbitt, techno-futurist William Crossman, New Atlantis editor Christine Rosen, military strategist Edward N. Luttwak, and Peter Wagschal, author of a prescient 1978 FUTURIST article, "Illiterates with Doctorates," and asked, does the rise of visual culture mean the death of the written word?

ALSO IN THE MARCH-APRIL ISSUE OF THE FUTURIST:

     The comptroller general of the United States, David M. Walker, examines the long-term challenges facing the world community and the United States in particular. "Federal deficits will grow to unsustainable levels in as little as two decades," warns Walker. "At

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that point, without significant policy changes, federal deficits could reach 10% or more of our economy." Walker goes on to describe how governments can better secure their futures by planning today.

And...

LOOKING BACK ON THE FUTURE

     In this second installment of his memoirs, the World Future Society's founding president Edward Cornish describes how, in 1967, a network of volunteers and visionaries--including Nobel Prize-winning chemist Glenn Seaborg, science-fiction writer Arthur C. Clarke, and U.S. secretary of agriculture Orville L. Freeman--were drawn to a new, forward-looking organization called the World Future Society.

ALSO...

     The coming osteoporosis epidemic, swarm-bots, bionic surgery, and harnessing the energy of the Gulf Stream 

     Pick up the March-April issue of THE FUTURIST for $4.95 at bookstores and newsstands, or write the World Future Society, 7910 Woodmont Ave., Suite 450, Bethesda, MD 20814. Order online at www.wfs.org.

     THE FUTURIST is a bimonthly magazine focused on innovation, creative thinking, and emerging social, economic, environmental, and technological trends.