Futuristics: Looking Ahead (Tackling Tomorrow Today)

253 Pages·2004·2.65 MB·English

by  Arthur B. Shostak

Tackling Tomorrow Today
Volume One:Futuristics:Looking Ahead
Volume Two:America:Moving Ahead
Volume Three:Getting Personal:Staying Ahead
Volume Four:Moving Along:Far Ahead
Courtesy of The Venus Project
Designed by Jacque Fresco and Roxanne Meadows
Tackling Tomorrow Today
Volume One
Futuristics:
Looking Ahead
Edited by Arthur B. Shostak, Ph.D.
Professor Emeritus of Sociology,
Department of Culture and Communications
Drexel University, Philadelphia, PA 19104
CHELSEA HOUSE PUBLISHERS
VP, NEWPRODUCTDEVELOPMENT Sally Cheney
DIRECTOROFPRODUCTION Kim Shinners
CREATIVEMANAGER Takeshi Takahashi
MANUFACTURINGMANAGER Diann Grasse
Staff forTACKLING TOMORROW TODAY
EXECUTIVEEDITOR Lee Marcott
EDITOR Christian Green
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PHOTOEDITOR Sarah Bloom
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©2005 by Chelsea House Publishers,
a subsidiary of Haights Cross Communications.
All rights reserved. Printed and bound in the United States of America.
http://www.chelseahouse.com
First Printing
9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Tackling tomorrow today / edited by Arthur B. Shostak.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 0-7910-8401-9 (v. 1) -- ISBN 0-7910-8402-7 (v. 2) -- ISBN 0-
7910-8403-5 (v. 3) -- ISBN 0-7910-8404-3 (v. 4) 1. Twenty-first
century--Forecasts. 2. Technology and civilization. I. Shostak,
Arthur B.
CB161.T33 2004
303.49'09'05--dc22
2004016198
All links and web addresses were checked and verified to be correct at the time
of publication. Because of the dynamic nature of the web, some addresses and
links may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid.
(cid:2)
Dedicated to forecasters,
prominent and unsung alike,
who help us see further,
imagine more,
prepare better
and
savor life’s extraordinary possibilities.
(cid:2)
To stretch our collective imagination about tomorrow,
to help order our images of the future,
to peer forward into the mists,
is one of the proudest
and most essential
of intellectual enterprises.
—Alvin and Heidi Toffler,
Encyclopedia of the Future
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Sixteen high school students from six states and the District of
Columbia volunteered to critique well over sixty candidate essays and
help me chose fifty-eight for the four volumes in this series. Their
cogent and insightful feedback (266 brief reviews) can be found at the
rear of each volume, and it makes clear my considerable debt to them:
Amelia Adams, Mike Antonelli, Erin Bauerle, Patricia Marie Borrell,
Andrew Crandall, Alex Dale, Tom Dunn, Rebecca Henderson, Mara
James, Sarah Konnor, Ginger Lemon, Kelly Ramirez, Dalea Reich-
gott, Benjamin Samuels, Brittany Tracy, and Jessica Varzaly. Special
thanks go to Alex, Dalea, Mike, and others for survey responses, and
for sheer output alone, to Tom, Jessica, Benjamin, Mara, Patricia,
Ginger, Andrew, and Alex.
Plainly, much appreciation is owed the forty-three writers of the
volume’s fifty-eight original essays; busy people who took time to
share creative ideas and earnest feelings about our choices in making
probable, possible, preferable, and preventable futures.
Several contributors (Glenn, Jeff, Joe, Josh, Marilyn, Nat, Roger,
Sohail, and Tom) commented usefully on the essays of others. John
Smart secured remarkable artwork for his two essays from Cris Dor-
naus. Marv Cetron, Nat Irvin, Mel Konnor, Robert Merikangas, and
Patrick Salsbury ably adapted essays. Ann Coombs provided special
research material of great value. While they did not write essays,
Daniel Shostak did provide insightful discussion questions, as did
Nada Khader. Jacque Fresco and Roxanne Meadows shared their
extraordinary artwork.
Many whose ideas are not shared directly in the book nevertheless
made a vital contribution. Stevi Baggert, Connie Cordovilla, Judith
Czigler, Alexander Friedlander, Thad McKenna, Adrienne Redd, and
Emily Thorne helped recruit high school volunteers. Todd R. Grube
identified editorial cartoons of high quality. Peggy Dominy, an Infor-
mation Services Librarian at Drexel University, found hard-to-locate
missing data. And, of course, there were many others whom I trust
will forgive my regrettable memory lapse.
As before in the case of five books I edited in 2003/2004 on 9/11 and
the Iraq War (DEFEATING TERRORISM/DEVELOPING DREAMS), the
staff of Chelsea House did an especially fine job meeting some rather
complex challenges, with special thanks going to the series editor,
Christian Green.
For more than a quarter of a century, my wife, Lynn Seng, has con-
tributed ideas of great value, reviews of keen insight, and support
without which I would accomplish far less. Her belief in this project,
and her love and smile, make all the difference.
Finally, I would like to acknowledge YOUR unique contribution, for
it is ultimately only as you—and other readers—ponder and act on the
book’s many ideas that this volume can help us craft a world of
tomorrow that increasingly honors us all.

Table of Contents
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS 6
INTRODUCTION 13
PART ONE:ON SEEING FARTHER AND BETTER 27
Essay One
Smart Pills: A Thought Experiment
Daniel Rigney, Ph.D. 29
Essay Two
Future Heroes 2035: My Friends and I
John Smart 36
Essay Three
Eighty-Two Assumptions about the Next
Twenty-Five Years: Refining Our View
Joseph F. Coates 49
PART TWO:TOOLS AND TECHNIQUES:TRIED AND TRUE 62
Essay Four
Futuring Methods: How Can We Study Tomorrow?
Edward Cornish 65
Essay Five
Finding the Future in Your Newspaper
David J. Brier 77
Essay Six
Teens in Time
Joseph F. Coates 85
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