When will the last book be published? World Future Society forecasts
The "dream" of smell-o-vision may be realized, cell rejuvenation will allow humans to live 1,000 years, and a prediction of when the last book and newspaper will be printed - sooner rather than later - are among the annual forecasts included in Outlook 2013, published by the Futurist magazine of the World Future Society, Bethesda, Md.
The forecasts collected in the annual Outlook reports - gathered from articles published in the past year - are not intended to predict the future, but rather to provoke thought and inspire action for building a better future today, according to the Society. Among the forecasts:
Shake-ups in the “C Suite”: New corporate leaders with new skills are on the way. Corporate futures will be shaped by leaders adept in social networking, content management, data mining, and data meaning. Look for such job titles as Earned Media Officer, Chief Content Officer, Open-Source Manager, Chief Linguist, and Chief Data Scientist. - Geoffrey Colon
By 2025, there will be 27 megacities around the world, each with populations exceeding 10 million. The “real population bomb” isn’t the sheer number of world population, but the relentless urbanization in places unprepared for this growth. Megacities in northern Africa, the Middle East, South Asia, China, and Indonesia, where poverty is already severe, will face more environmental pollution and become havens for terrorism and crime - P. H. Liotta and James F. Miskel
Humans could one day reach longevity “escape velocity.” Continuous rejuvenation therapy that focuses on repairing cell damage before it accumulates, causing pathologies, may one day allow people to live for a thousand years. As these technologies continue to improve, each new round of rejuvenation therapy will improve upon the previous treatments, and we will stay young indefinitely. -Aubrey de Grey
The last newspaper and book will have been printed in 2020. Information formerly contained by print products will be rented by users rather than owned, and will be accessed from the cloud via 3-D mobile media. - Marcel Bullinga
The dream of “Smell-O-Vision” may soon come true. An odor-release device triggered by heat from an electrical current may one day bring scents into virtual-reality experiences, video games, and other applications. One potential use for such telesmell devices would be for alarm systems, perhaps scaring burglars away with skunk scents - Sungho Jin
For the complete list, go to www.wfs.org.
