Glowing future predicted by UN "State of the Future Report"

By Dick Pelletier

 

       We’ve seen the future … and we may not be doomed. The just published 2008 United Nations report, with input from 2,500 experts from around the world finds life is improving for people worldwide – but governments are failing to grasp the opportunities offered.

 

       "This is a unique time in history. Mobile phones, the Internet, international trade, language translation and jet planes are giving birth to an interdependent humanity that can create and implement global strategies to improve its prospects," the report states. "It is increasingly clear that the world has the resources to address our common challenges. Ours is the first generation with the means for many to know the world as a whole, identify global improvement systems, and seek to improve them."

      

       The world is about to enjoy a prosperous future with an unprecedented ability to extend lifespan and increase the power of ordinary people. The life extension movement is growing exponentially and could be the next significant field targeted by venture capitalists as alternative energy and clean tech wane.

 

       Made possible by soaring healthcare costs, unfunded Medicare-type liabilities in every industrialized nation, and the demographic aging of populations, the rapidly expanding life extension industry encompasses the commercialization of scientific findings from stem cell, genetic engineering, regenerative medicine, human enhancements, and other areas of health research.

 

       "Advances in science, technology, education, economics, and management," the report continues, "seems capable of making the world work far better than it does today." Medical breakthroughs are offering the hope of defeating inherited diseases, tailoring cures to individual patients – and even creating replacement body parts.

 

       Information technologies and PCs are spreading to remote villages in developing countries, empowering the people with "collective intelligence and just-in-time knowledge for informed decisions." Within 25 years, computer capacity is expected to equal the power of the human brain, and in 50 years, everyone will have access to processing power greater than that of all the brains on Earth combined.

 

       The Internet has become a powerful force for reinventing citizens' roles in politics and influencing policy-making and governance. Over the past 30 years, the report states, the number of free countries has more than doubled from 43 to 90, while those that are partly free increased from 46 to 60. Just over one-third of humanity still lives in 43 countries with authoritarian regimes, but half of these people are in China.

 

       However there are many challenges the world must face, the report warns. "With nearly three billion people making $2 or less per day, long-term global social conflict seems inevitable without more serious food policies, useful scientific breakthroughs, and dietary changes."

 

       Organized crime "continues to grow in the absence of a comprehensive, integrated global counterstrategy." The report estimates that this malicious faction is now worth some $2 trillion a year. And there is a 75 percent chance that terrorists will acquire nuclear weapons within 10 years.

 

       It appears that humanity now stands on the threshold of an affluent, peaceful "magical future;" but forward thinkers believe we may need help from tomorrow’s super-technologies – advanced nanotech and artificial intelligence – to make this glowing prospect become reality. Will we succeed? Positive futurists believe we will.

This article appeared in various print publications and on-line blogs. Comments always welcome.