| Future
"The world changes so quickly it's hard to keep up. New inventions and innovations alter the way we live. People's values, attitudes, and beliefs are changing. And the pace of change keeps accelerating, making it difficult to prepare for tomorrow.
By studying the future, people can better anticipate what lies ahead. More importantly, they can actively decide how they will live in the future, by making choices today and realizing the consequences of their decisions.
The future doesn't just happen: People create it through their action--or inaction--today."
World Future Society - http://www.wfs.org/faq.htm
Places To Go | People To See | Things To Do | Bibliography
Places To Go
BBC's
The Essential Guide to the 21rst Century
This site, created by the British Broadcasting Company, has opinions about
the future from experts from all over the world. Each gives a personal
forecast of how our lives might be affected by far reaching changes in
society.
National
Geographic's Beyond 2000
Even if our crystal ball is cloudy, it's fun to imagine what the next
thousand years hold in store. Click on the subjects at right to learn
National Geographic World's best guesses about technological developments
in your lifetime-and beyond.
Biosphere
2
Visit the Biosphere 2 ecological research
project. One of its objectives was to test the feasibility of a self-sustaining
space colony. See what they found out.
People To See
Time's
Innovators
Who will be the most influential people of the 21rst Century? On this
site, Time Magazine focuses on innovators in Design, Science, Finance,
Justice, Spirituality, and the World Wide Web--people who will make an
impact in this century.
Great
Thinkers and Visionaries
According to the site's author, this is a list of people "whose ideas
on how and where the world is--and should be--evolving, may be of interest
to those who want to understand the frontier of human thought." Although
not all of the "visionaries" listed are alive, each has a brief
biographical description, with links, where possible, to relevant web
pages.
Isaac Asimov
Isaac Asimov is esteemed as one of the finest writers of science fiction
and scientific fact in the twentieth century.
TV.com : The Jetsons
♫ Meet
George Jetson!... His boy Elroy!... Daughter Judy!... Jane, his wife! ♫ Reacquaint
yourself with the Jetson family who live an exciting life in the future.
Buck Rogers
Visit with Buck Rogers. He was the star of a
newspaper comic strip and a series of comic books in the 1920s and 1930s
called Buck Rogers of the 25 th Century. He also had his own radio show
in the 1930s and 40s. Buck was a World War I veteran who was overcome
by radioactive gas and mysteriously transported to the future. He eventually
had a paralysis ray gun, a disintegrator, a belt that helped him jump
high, and other high tech futuristic gizmos. He fought crime, was a secret
agent, and became the head of the Rocket Rangers.
Flash
Gordon
Meet Flash Gordon. He rivaled
Buck Rogers in having adventures in the future. Evaluate his technology
in terms of what we really have today. How many of his futuristic gizmos
really came to pass?
Star
Trek
Meet Star Trek characters
from all incarnations of this popular show about life in the 24th century.
There’s Captain Kirk, Spock, Captain
Picard, and many, many more.
Things To Do
Time
Magazine's Visions of the 21rst Century
How will the Internet rule our lives? Will we still have books? Will we
still have privacy? Explore some of the questions--and the likely answers--of
some interesting questions about life in the 21rst Century.
Facing the
Future: People and the Planet
This site, which advocates creative action as means of confronting global
social ills, poses the questions: Where are we headed? Where do we want
to go? And how do we choose a just, sustainable future? It also contains
a "Teachers' Corner" that provides issue guides, lesson plans,
and hands-on activities and service learning opportunities to engage,
challenge, and inspire students to create a positive future.
ExploraVision
ExploraVision is a competition for students of all interest, skill, and
ability levels in grades K-12. The purpose of the competition is to encourage
students to combine their imaginations with the tools of science to create
and explore a vision of a future technology.
Projections:
A Futurist at the Movies
Explore how the future of society and technology are depicted on film.
World Future Society
Explore this website which acts as a clearinghouse for
ideas about the future.
Space Future
Find out when or if space travel might become
available to the average person looking to have an out of this world
vacation experience.
Endangered
Animals
Uncover worldwide endangered
animals and learn how to take steps in insure their survival for the future.
According to this website, there are currently 143 species of birds that
are endangered and 120 species of mammals.
United
Nations: World Population Trends
Explore world population trends. United
Nations records show that 20% of the world’s population currently
lives in the developed areas of Australia , New Zealand , Europe , Japan
, and North America . The remaining 80% of people live in the developing
countries of Africa, Asia , Oceania , Latin America , and the Caribbean
. For the future, it is projected that between 1999 and 2015, developing
countries will contribute to 98% of the population growth for the world.
Health
Connection: Medical Advances
Discover
new medical treatments and diagnostic advances that could make your future
healthier.
Transportation
Futuristics
Find out about
transportation possibilities for the 21 st century such as amphibious recreational
vehicles and personal flying machines.
Genetics
and the Future of Medicine
Explore
the ways that the decoding of the human genome may change the way that
we provide medical care.
Popular
Mechanics: Robots Clean House
Discover
one of the best future trends.
Stephen
Hawking
See what Stephen Hawking has
to say about the future of the universe.
Science
Fiction Book Club
Browse
through what this site claims are the 50 best science fiction books published
in the last 50 years.
Pew
Internet American Life Project: Internet Evolution
Explore what the
future holds for the internet.
Bibliography
- Berry, Adrian. The Next 500 Years : Life in the Coming Millennium.
Gramercy, 1999.
- Cetron, Marvin and Owen Davies. Probable Tomorrows : How Science and
Technology Will Transform Our Lives in the Next Twenty Years. St. Martins
Press, 1997.
- Cochrane, Peter. Tips for Time Travelers. McGraw-Hill, 1998.
- Kaku, Michio. Visions : How Science Will Revolutionize the 21st Century.
Bantam Books, 1998.
- King, Larry and Pat Piper. Future Talk : Conversations About Tomorrow
With Today's Most Provocative Personalities. HarperCollins, 1999.
- Knoke, William. Bold New World : The Essential Road Map to the Twenty-First
Century. Kodansha International, 1997.
- Pearson, Ian. The MacMillan Atlas of the Future. Hungry Minds, 1998.
- Pearson, Ian and Chris Winter. Where's It Going? Thames & Hudson,
2000.
- Wieners, Brad and David Pescovitz. Reality Check. Hardwired, 1996.
- Zey, Michael G. The Future Factor : The Five Forces Transforming Our
Lives and Shaping Human Destiny. McGraw-Hill, 2000.
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