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Winter 2006: Reading the Future

selected essays

America's Romance with the Future

by Martin Walker
The celebrated American faith in the future was matched in the past by a willingness to sacrifice for a better tomorrow. Today, the faith endures but the commitment to sacrifice is in doubt.

Blogging for Immortality

by Andrew Stark
Nearly anyone today can inscribe his name for eternity on the Web or have it chiseled in brick at his alma mater. Has the 21st century finally delivered immortality for all?

Doom and Demography

by Nicholas Eberstadt
Decades ago, many population statistics seemed to point toward global calamity. Today, the world’s population is indeed much larger—but it is also much healthier, better educated, and richer. Therein lies a lesson in the use and misuse of numbers.

Has Futurism Failed?

by David Rejeski, Robert L. Olson
The effort to think systematically about the future began little more than a half-century ago, and the results so far have not been impressive. Today’s futurists hope that more sophisticated methods will allow them to provide a better picture of what tomorrow may bring.

How to Think About Terrorism

by Richard K. Betts
Will better intelligence and technology allow the United States to anticipate future terrorist attacks? History does not offer much reason for optimism, but there are steps we can take now.

The Future Is a Foreign Country

by Edward Tenner
How we choose to think about what lies ahead may be more important in creating a future we can comfortably inhabit than all the technological change tomorrow will bring.

Will We Still Be Fully Human?

by Joel Garreau

Will American Culture Heal Itself?

by Camille Paglia

Will Globalization make Hatred More Lethal?

by Robert Wright

Will Love Endure?

by Laura Kipnis

Will Religion Still Seem an Illusion?

by Wilfred M. McClay

Will English Become the Universal Language?

by BARBARA WALLRAFF

What is the Most Pressing Environmental Question?

by Bjorn Lomborg
? By BJØRN LOMBORG most people seem to believe that the state of the world is getting worse—that poverty, malnutrition, and inequality are increasing, while the air and water become more polluted, forests continue to shrink, and global warming threatens humankind. Yet the data tell a very different story. Humanity’s lot has improved dramatically—not just in the developed world but in the developing world, where the poverty and malnutrition rates, both 50 percent in 1950, have dropped to 25...

What's Next on the Menu?

by JAMES MORRIS

Will Adolescence Become Interminable?

by Janna Malamud Smith
? i decided years ago that adolescence in the United States ends at 32. Maybe 33. Thirty years from now, will the tipping point have ratcheted up to 50? It could happen. For starters, parents’ increasing longevity may take a further toll on children’s maturation, as with those male apes that don’t develop fully masculine features as long as more senior males dominate the pack. Keep the elderly fit, and the edgy but dependent 18-year-old may become the edgy but dependent 48-year-old still...

Is Peace Possible?

by Stephen M. Younger

in essence

A UN for Our Time

A military strategist believes major reforms are needed at the United Nations.

Age of the Oligarchs

The roots of the problems in America's corporate world may lie in their ownership structure, very different from the norm in the rest of the world.

Business the Beneficent

Does corporate giving help companies' bottom line? The real benefits remain elusive, as does the future of business charity.

It's Always Politics

Politicians love to play the bipartisan card, but there's always something political at stake.

Mob Rule

The reputation of government elites, which once formed the backbone of public service both in America and abroad, has fallen in recent years, and that may not be a good thing.

Murder Metropolis

Los Angeles has a long and sordid history of murder, a pattern that will likely be difficult to break.

Mysteries of Corruption

Why is corruption so pervasive around the globe?

Supreme Shifts

The popular view was always that FDR's ill-advised 1937 court-packing scheme nonetheless nudged the Supreme Court justices to alter their thinking on the New Deal, but change may already have been happening.

The Tabloid Situation

Could a shift to the smaller format be the salvation for today's troubled American newspapers--or newsprint's last gasp?

The Tyranny of Cheer

Why the smiley face should be America's national symbol.

WQ_VOL30_W_2006_Periodical_04

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