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Mosaic 2 Reading, 4/e
Brenda Wegmann
Miki Knezevic
Marilyn Bernstein
The Future

Anticipating the Reading

Quickly skim the passage below and answer the questions. Then read the passage all the way through.

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Anticipating the Future



No one can claim to have the key to the future, but one group of people is trying. They are dedicated to anticipating what might happen in order to prepare themselves for the inevitable. Welcome to the World Future Society, which according to its Web site, is "a nonprofit educational and scientific organization for people interested in how social and technological developments are shaping the future." Located in Washington, D.C., the World Future Society claims a membership of 30,000 people from more than 80 countries. Members include sociologists, scientists, educators, students, and retirees, all devoted to studying the future in order to make constructive and well-informed decisions about what lies ahead. Their goal is to actively shape the future by understanding the consequences of their present actions. The World Future Society provides a forum for members to share ideas about the future. Membership costs only $45 per year, and members receive:The Futurist, a bimonthly magazine; a monthly e-mail newsletter; discounts at the Futurist Bookstore; theFuture Times, a networking newspaper, as well as a variety of other benefits. Members of the World Future Society can also attend national conferences.

So what are the futurists forecasting? Some forecasts may be surprising, others might seem foreseeable. Here is what some members are predicting:
  1. The weather will become more violent, causing fiercer storms, more extreme temperatures, dryer deserts, and a catastrophic level of human casualties.
  2. Virtual nations will form that are as powerful as, or more powerful than, traditional, "real" nations. People connected by a mutual passion would comprise these virtual nations, which would soon be able to compete with traditional nation-states in providing security and services to their citizens.
  3. Current genetic research will lead to technologies that allow parents to design their own children, choosing everything from hair color to health to IQ. Efforts to regulate this genetic crafting will become futile and traditional research intended to find cures for diseases and disabilities will be endangered.
  4. Walking becomes obsolete as personal wheeled devices offer alternatives to traditional ambulatory transportation. This, perhaps, will lead to a decrease in exercise and an increase in obesity among the human population.
  5. The world will be home to 1 billion elderly people by the year 2020, the majority of them in developing nations.
  6. Textbooks will be superseded by the Internet as interactive curricula will appear on the Internet and students complete their assignments online.
In addition to forecasts, members can submit proposals for improving life in the future. Here are examples of some proposals for improving our future existence:
  1. Shift to an eight-day week. The eight-day week would consist of five work days and a three-day weekend. This would allow for a better quality of life, including increased family time, increase flex-time (taking time off when needed, as opposed working 9-5, five days a week) thereby decreasing traffic and congestion.
  2. Shift to a nine-day week. The nine-day week would consist of six working days and a three-day weekend, however, it would be staggered so that schools, places of employment, and services are open 360 days a year (there would be five days off for major holidays). The population would be divided into three "cadres," each assigned to different groups of six-day work weeks and three-day weekends. The nine-day week would reduce wear and tear on recreational facilities, roads and highways, and public transportation.
  3. Build a series of in-line cities. The cities would run along a man-made mountain, and would interconnect with each other, as well as with lakes, streams and paths. Train service would be automatic and constant—people would be able to "catch up" to the train in a special car and embark and disembark as they wished. Everything you need would be close by, so walking and cycling would be the most desirable forms of transportation. Cities and towns would name themselves in a way that would attract people with the same values and ideas.


The members of the World Future Society might not have all the answers, but they are thinking about the future in imaginative and creative ways. And sometimes their forecasts are right. The editors ofThe Futurist have predicted important developments such as the Internet, virtual reality, and the end of the Cold War.



1

Who joins the World Future Society?
2

What is the goal of the Society?
3

Do you think any of their predictions will come true?
4

Do you think their advice for future living will be followed?








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