The Way We Will Be 50 Years from Today: 60 of the World's Greatest Minds Share Their Visions of the Next Half Century

264 Pages·32.006 MB·English

by  Mike Wallace (editor), Louis Ignarro

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Digitized by the Internet Archive
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http://archive.org/details/waywewillbe50yea00wall

THE WAY WE WILL BE
50
years
from today
60 of the World's Greatest Minds
Share Their Visions of the Next Half Century
Mike Wallace
ThomasNelson
Since1798
NASHVILLE DALLAS MEXICOCITY RIODEJANEIRO BEIJING
—
©2008byMikeWallaceandBillAdler
Allrightsreserved.Noporti—onofthisbookmaybereproduced,storedinaretrievalsystem,or—transmitted
inanyformorbyanymeans electronic,mechanical,photocopy,recording,scanning,orother exceptfor
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PublishedinNashville,Tennessee,byThomasNelson.ThomasNelsonisaregisteredtrademarkofThomas
Nelson,Inc.
TheviewspresentedinthisbookarenotnecessarilythesameasthoseofThomasNelsonPublishers.
ThomasNelson,Inc.titlesmaybepurchasedinbulkforeducational,business,fundraising,orsalespro-
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Pagedesign:WalterPetrie
LibraryofCongressCataloging-in-PublicationData
Thewaywewillbe50yearsfromtoday:60oftheworld'sgreatestmindssharetheirvisionsofthe
nexthalf-century/[editedby]MikeWallace,
p. cm.
ISBN978-0-8499-0370-0
1.Socialprediction. 2.Socialindicators. 3.Economicindic—ators. 4.Politicalindicators. 5.Health
statusindicators. 6.Technologicalforecasting. 7.Qualityoflife Forecasting. 8.Twenty-firstcentury
Forecasts. I.Wallace,Mike,1918-
HM901.W392008
303.4909'05—dc22 2007045281
PrintedintheUnitedStatesofAmerica
08091011 12QW54321
Contents
Introduction vii
I Vint Cerf, As We May Live 1
» 2 Francis S. Collins, A Revolution in Medicine 4
3 George F. Smoot, A Tiny Dot in Cosmic Time;
A Big Period in Human Time
4 Christian de Duve,What's Ahead: "Figures Don't Lie" 11
5 John R. Christy, What a Climatologist Cannot Know 15
ABOUT THE NEXT 50 YEARS (BUT WHAT He DOES BELIEVE)
6 Louis Ignarro, NO More Heart Disease 18
J.
v""~ 7 E. FullerTorrey, The End of Psychiatric Illnesses 22
8 Arthur Caplan, Simon Caplan's Day 24
9 WandaJones, Fifty Years from Now: 26
Today's Baby Reaches Middle Age
k IO Craig Newmark, Blogging from the Future 31
Ray Kurzweil, Progress Accelerates Exponentially 33
I I
iv Contents
12 Thomas C. Schelling, An Economist Predicts 39
13 Chandrasekhar (Spike) Narayan, Diary Entry: 2058 43
14- James E. Cartwright, Deciphering the Mega-Trends 46
15 JodyWilliams, Will We Be 50 Years from Today? 52
IB Kim Dae-jung, The Era of Great Change Is Coming 56
17 Ronald Noble, The Future of Crime 58
18 Norman E. Borlaug, The Future of Food 63
19 Richard Clarke, What Does It Mean to Be Human? 68
20 Richard Restak, A Brain Scientist's Perspective 74
2I Sandra Postel, In Harmony with Earth's Water Cycle 78
22 Gerardus \ Hooft, How Will Science 82
Transform Human Society?
23 Shigeo Hirose, Where Are All the Robots? 86
24 Peter Doherty, Wind Farming in Pollyanna Land 90
25 Stuart L. Pimm, Letters to My Grandchildren 94
and Great-Grandchildren
26 Malcolm Bricklin, Future Cars and the Jetsons 99
27 Abdulla Salem El-Badri, A World without Borders 103
28 Lee H. Hamilton, Technology, Security, 105
and Liberty in 50 Years
29 Steven Beckwith, Our Place in the Universe 109
30 Tim Mack, Snapshot of a World 112
with the New Nation of California
Contents v
31 Marian Wright Edelman, Our Children, Our Future 116
32 Valli Moosa, Landscapes and Living Conditions 1 19
33 Leon E. Panetta andJames D. Watkins, 123
Go Green by Thinking Blue
34 Aaron Ciechanover, The Paradox 128
35 EliasA. Zerhouni, The Transformation 131
36 Nancy G. Brinker, A World without Breast Cancer 136
37 Stanley B. Prusiner, Hope for People 141
with Brain Diseases
38 Victor Sidel, A Physician's View of the Future 145
39 Claude Mandil, Clean Energy for Progress 150
40 Nancy Ho, C0 for Good 156
2
41 Michael Shermer, To Open the World to All People 159
42 Joseph L. Bryant, The View as Glide By 164
I
43 Barry Marshall, One Tuesday in Australia 167
44 Carl Pope, Daniel Becker, andAllison Forbes, 171
Wake-Up Call on Global Warming
45 Keith B. Richburg, Dateline: 50 Years into the Future 175
46 GregoryA. Poland, Leaps and Eurekas 178
47 Earl G. Brown, Snapshots of the Future 182
with Infectious Disease: Living in a Brave
New World with Age-Old Scourges
48 Carol Bellamy, The Age of the Global Citizen 189
1
vi Contents
49 James Canton, Some Words from "Dr. Future" 192
50 Douglas Osheroff, Some Warnings, Some Worries, 197
and a Call for Leadership
5 Lyman Page, How Our Knowledge Will Increase 201
I
52 Carol M. Browner, We Will Have Learned Our Lesson 204
53 Richard Dawkins, The Future of the Soul 206
54 Peter Marra, A Bird's-Eye View of the Next 50 Years 210
55 Nsedu Obot-Witherspoon, Global Climate Change 214
and Our Children
56 William H. Meadows, A Way Back to Wilderness 217
57 Lawrence M. Krauss, Future World: 221
The Bad, the Good, and the Ugly
58 John C. Mather, Always So Much More to Discover 225
59 Ahmed Zewail, The World in Fifty Years: 228
Revolutions and Repercussions
60 Ross Gelbspan, The Earth in 50 Years: 233
Rescue or Ruin?
. . .
Acknowledgments 237
Notes 239
Bibliography 24