Contents for
Jan-Feb 2008
Volume 42, No. 1
A magazine of forecasts, trends, and ideas about the future.
About This Issue
By Cynthia G. Wagner,
Managing Editor
Tomorrow in Brief
The Art of the Cyber-Interview
Self-Repairing Spacecraft
Smoking and Alzheimer's Disease
Safeguarding the Future of Plant Species
Alternatives to Antibiotics
Feedback
Consultants and Services
The Consumer Is the
Medium
by Arnold Brown
Consumers have taken control of their own "marketing"--i.e., collection of
information about the products they consume. Surveys by other consumers
trump slick ad campaigns, and collaborative filtering software enables peer
reviews of everything from music to restaurants. Businesses will
increasingly use this bottom-up tool (crowd sourcing) to mine for new ideas
for products and services.
Available in PDF.
Fighting the Cult of
the Amateur: A Web 2.0 Critic Takes on the Confederacy of E-Dunces
In an interview with associate editor
Patrick Tucker, Web entrepreneur Andrew Keen argues that the user-driven
content frenzy of the Internet, in which anonymous posters can say virtually
anything they want, has led to increased incivility in Web-based discourse
as well as critically compromised reliability of Web-based information.
Free
Future View
The Age of Distraction: The Professor or the
Processor?
By Michael Bugeja
Due to academia's reliance on technology and the media's overemphasis on
trivia, we are failing to inform future generations about social problems
that require critical thinking and interpersonal intelligence.
Free
Cover Story |
Scanning the Global
Situation and Prospects for the Future
by Jerome C. Glenn
An overview of global trends studied by the Millennium Project for more than
a decade finds both positive and negative developments. We are healthier,
wealthier, and better educated, but our world is also becoming more
congested, heated, and dangerous.
Available in PDF.
Money from Trees
Government
Anticipating Wild Cards in World Affairs
Society
Genetic
Ethics and "Superbabies"
Girls' Education: Key to "Virtuous Circle"
Technology
Poetry in the Digital Age
Economics
The Economic Value of Nonprofits
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January-February 2008
ISSUE OF THE FUTURIST
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