Contents of the Current Issue

Executive Summaries

Cover Stories: The New Media Age: End of the Written Word? edited by FUTURIST assistant editor Patrick Tucker

With the increasing dominance of multimedia communications, many are predicting the end of the written word. But is it really happening? And what would be the likely impacts to our ability to understand complex ideas in a world without words? THE FUTURIST solicited the reflections of several leading experts:

In The Postliterate Future, Megatrends author John Naisbitt describes some of the forces contributing to the rise of a visual culture, including the slow demise of newspaper readership and the phenomenal success of visually based media such as music videos and video games.

The rise of a more visual (and visceral) culture will increasingly cost us critical thinking skills, such as the ability to recognize satire, suggests Michael Rogers, Futurist in Residence, New York Times Co., and columnist for MSNBC.com ("The Practical Futurist"), who recounts the reaction to one of his own satirical pieces.

Other contributors to this special section include William Crossman, author of VIVO [Voice-In/Voice Out]: The Coming Age of Talking Computers; Christine Rosen, senior editor of The New Atlantis; Joe Lambert, executive director of the Center for Digital Storytelling; Peter Wagschal, author of a prescient 1978 FUTURIST article, "Illiterates with Doctorates"; and Edward N. Luttwak, senior fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

Foresight for Government
by David M. Walker, comptroller general of the United States, U.S. Government Accountability Office

SUMMARY: Improvement in government's foresight capability will require an overhaul of how agencies do business. The United States could look to what other countries have begun to do to address problems such as the aging of their populations, which is "a demographic tsunami building silently offshore." Improving foresight will require multilateral action at the international level and more interagency cooperation at the national level.

The Coming Osteoporosis Epidemic: Trend Analysis
by Jay Herson, biostatistics scholar (Johns Hopkins University adjunct faculty), statistical researcher in drug development, and regulatory expert in clinical trials

SUMMARY: Osteoporosis is a growing problem worldwide as societies age, and increases in bone fractures (especially hip, spine, and wrist) are predicted. The article outlines the trends of the epidemic, including its costs, to the year 2050, and reviews treatment strategies and policy options under different scenarios ("challenging times," "business as usual"). Appropriate actions now for fracture prevention could lead to much higher quality of life in the future for those at risk.

The Search for Foresight (part 2): The World Future Society's Emergence from Dream to Reality
by Edward Cornish

SUMMARY: Founding WFS president and FUTURIST editor continues the narrative on how the Society came into existence, recounting early achievements and challenges, including the toll that this work took on his personal life. Cornish describes producing the first issues of THE FUTURIST with few resources, recruiting volunteer staff, membership promotions, inviting advisers and board members, organizing international chapters, and weighing the prospects for a conference about the future.

To order the print edition of the March-April 2007 issue of THE FUTURIST ($4.95 plus $3 postage and handling) or to become a member of the World Future Society ($49 per year).

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