FutureVigil (r) » predictions

FUTURE OF THE NET

Jeffrey Newman — Fri, 04 Jun 2010 00:13:16 +0000

Before the year 2020, according to experts, the following changes will occur relating to the net:
*The mobile device will be the main connection too to the net
*Voice recognition will be prevalent, usable and used
*Personal and work time will not be divided off as more connections to the net will be commonplace and an integral part of work
*Virtual worlds, augmented virtual reality and personal information overlays will be integrated into every day life.

5 TRENDS KEEPING ME AWAKE AT NIGHT

Jeffrey Newman — Tue, 11 May 2010 01:22:29 +0000

I try to read as much as I can these days. It helps me believe that I am still young and able. Sometimes however, itresults in obsessive thinking to the point of apocalyptic concern. The past week has been of particular concern–the perfect storm seems to be brewing. Here’s what’s worrying me now in no particular order; 1) the potential for a collapse of the European Union. The problem doesn’t reside in Greece, a small country. My worry is with Germany, which is bearing a major burden of taxation for the problems of other members of the union. Germany’s economy is not that strong rights now and my concern is that it will become impotent. I also worry about The United Kingdom, which has an economic system weaker than it has ever been. The EU currency system accounts for 20% of the global GDP so the problem is not “over there” as a split of the union will shock the world economy with disastrous results. I am also worried now about chronic water shortages. Experts have seen this coming for years but now it is upon us, threatening parts of California, Nevada, Florida, Georgia and if nothing is done soon will result in an abandonment of those places. The only one benefitting are the water bottling companies, whose stocks are through the roof. As water becomes more scarce, there wil be water wars. This is a reality. I really worry about China too, a country I knew too little about until my daughter went to live and study there. It’s an environmental disaster and a nation experiencing a massive unchecked epidemic of diabetes and cardiovascular disease and no medical providers for individuals without insurance or wealth. It’s population is aging and due to the one child policy it is losing its own labor pool. My concern is that China will eventually spiral and there will be no one to buy our treasury notes. That doesn’t address the choking pollution, which goes on unabated because of China’s growth model. It is happening too quickly. I’m worry about our own country and whether we can continue to afford medicare and other entitlement programs. I worry about the coming terrorist act that we don’t interrupt which will set up the fear/anger mentality which got us into Iraq and Afghanistan.Please tell me I am overly concerned.

Bookless Future Libraries

Jeffrey Newman — Tue, 19 Jan 2010 00:33:11 +0000

What will libraries be like in the future. A growing number of librarians are already planning for bookless libraries, administered by central sources in order to allow for “sustainable scholarship”. At one recent conference, experts explained that groups of universities are already exploring shared digital repositories and archives. This collaborative outsourcing will also include catalogue services such as those provided by Online Computer Library Center Inc.. Due to the enormous costs of maintaining libraries as well as the economic meltdown, administrators are already forced to make changes which are eventually expected to lead to libraries without hardcover books.

Famous Quotes of Mahatma Ghandi

Jeffrey Newman — Sun, 17 Jan 2010 16:03:11 +0000

Memorable Quotes and quotations from Mahatma Gandhi

Mahatma Gandhi Indian ascetic & nationalist leader (1869 – 1948)

Mahatma Gandhi -
- The future depends on what we do in the present.

Mahatma Gandhi -
- The weak can never forgive. Forgiveness is the attribute of the strong.

Mahatma Gandhi -
- It is the quality of our work which will please God and not the quantity.

Mahatma Gandhi – “Non-Violence in Peace and War”
- There is no path to peace. Peace is the path.

Mahatma Gandhi -
- In matters of conscience, the law of majority has no place.

Mahatma Gandhi -
- Freedom is not worth having if it does not include the freedom to make mistakes.

Mahatma Gandhi -
- It is better to be violent, if there is violence in our hearts, than to put on the cloak of nonviolence to cover impotence.

Mahatma Gandhi -
- I want freedom for the full expression on my personality.

Mahatma Gandhi -
- Happiness is when what you think, what you say, and what you do are in harmony.

Mahatma Gandhi – when asked what he thought of Western civilization
- I think it would be a good idea.

Mahatma Gandhi -
- Honest differences are often a healthy sign of progress.

Mahatma Gandhi -
- You must not lose faith in humanity. Humanity is an ocean; if a few drops of the ocean are dirty, the ocean does not become dirty.

Mahatma Gandhi -
- The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way its animals are treated.

Mahatma Gandhi -
- You must be the change you want to see in the world.

Mahatma Gandhi -
- A coward is incapable of exhibiting love; it is the prerogative of the brave.

Mahatma Gandhi – “Non-Violence in Peace and War”
- What difference does it make to the dead, the orphans and the homeless, whether the mad destruction is wrought under the name of totalitarianism or the holy name of liberty or democracy?

Mahatma Gandhi -
- The future depends on what we do in the present.

Mahatma Gandhi -
- I am prepared to die, but there is no cause for which I am prepared to kill.

Mahatma Gandhi – 1922 Circuit House speech (court) charged with “attempting to disaffect towrds his majestys government”
- Affection cannot be manufactored or regulated by law. If one has no affection for a person or a system, one should be free to give the fullest expression to his disaffection, so long as he does not contemplate, promote, or incite to violence.

Mahatma Gandhi -
- I believe in equality for everyone, except reporters and photographers.

Mahatma Gandhi – (attributed)
- An eye for an eye makes the whole world blind.

Mahatma Gandhi – when asked what he thought of Western civilization
- I think it would be a good idea.

Mahatma Gandhi -
- We must become the change we want to see.

Mahatma Gandhi -
- To conceal ignorance is to increase it. An honest confession of it, however, gives ground for the hope that it will diminish some day or the other.

Mahatma Gandhi -
- Your beliefs become your thoughts. Your thoughts become your words. Your words become your actions. Your actions become your habits. Your habits become your values. Your values become your destiny.

Mahatma Gandhi -
- Whatever you do will be insignificant, but it is very important that you do it.

Mahatma Gandhi -
- There is more to life than increasing its speed

Mahatma Gandhi -
- An eye for eye only ends up making the whole world blind.

Mahatma Gandhi -
- As long as you derive inner help and comfort from anything, keep it.

Mahatma Gandhi -
- I believe in equality for everyone, except reporters and photographers.

Mahatma Gandhi – _Gandhi, An Autobiography_, page 446
- Among the many misdeeds of the British rule in India, history will look upon the Act depriving a whole nation of arms, as the blackest.

Mahatma Gandhi -
- There is more to life than increasing its speed.

Mahatma Gandhi -
- Live simply that others may simply live.

Mahatma Gandhi -
- In the attitude of silence the soul finds the path in an clearer light, and what is elusive and deceptive resolves itself into crystal clearness. Our life is a long and arduous quest after Truth.

Mahatma Gandhi -
- A man is but the product of his thoughts. What he thinks, he becomes.

Mahatma Gandhi -
- Whatever you do will be insignificant, but it is very important that you do it.

Mahatma Gandhi -
- Freedom is not worth having if it does not include the freedom to make mistakes.

Mahatma Gandhi -
- The only tyrant I accept in this world is the still voice within.

Mahatma Gandhi -
- There are seven sins in the world: Wealth without work, Pleasure without conscience, Knowledge without character, Commerce without morality, Science without humanity, Worship without sacrifice and politics without principle.

Mahatma Gandhi – 1869 – 1948
- The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way its animals are treated.

Mahatma Gandhi -
- In the attitude of silence the soul finds the path in a clearer light, and what is elusive and deceptive resolves itself into crystal clearness. Our life is a long and arduous quest after Truth.

Mahatma Gandhi -
- Where there is love there is life.

Mahatma Gandhi -
- Honest differences are often a healthy sign of progress.

Mahatma Gandhi -
- I do not want my house to be walled in on all sides and my windows to be stuffed. I want the cultures of all the lands to be blown about my house as freely as possible. But I refuse to be blown off my feet by any.

Mahatma Gandhi -
- One needs to be slow to form convictions, but once formed they must be defended against the heaviest odds.

Mahatma Gandhi -
- It is better to be violent, if there is violence in our hearts, than to put on the cloak of nonviolence to cover impotence.

Mahatma Gandhi -
- Always aim at complete harmony of thought and word and deed. Always aim at purifying your thoughts and everything will be well.

Mahatma Gandhi -
- Indolence is a delightful but distressing state; we must be doing something to be happy.

Mahatma Gandhi -
- Hate the sin, love the sinner.

Mahatma Gandhi -
- The outward freedom that we shall attain will only be in exact proportion to the inward freedom to which we may have grown at a given moment. And if this is a correct view of freedom, our chief energy must be concentrated on achieving reform from within.

Mahatma Gandhi -
- The good man is the friend of all living things.

Mahatma Gandhi -
- The only devils in this world are those running around in our own hearts, and that is where all our battles should be fought.

Mahatma Gandhi -
- Adaptability is not imitation. It means power of resistance and assimilation.

Mahatma Gandhi -
- When I despair, I remember that all through history the ways of truth and love have always won. There have been tyrants, and murderers, and for a time they can seem invincible, but in the end they always fall. Think of it ? always.

EARTH TO GET CLOSE SHAVE FROM NEW ASTEROID

Jeffrey Newman — Sat, 16 Jan 2010 14:58:07 +0000

An asteroid 30 to 50 feet across will pass by the Earth at just more than one-third the distance between the Earth and the moon on Wednesday. That’s the closest near-Earth object approach currently known between now and the flyby in 2024 of a similar-size object known as 2007 XB23.

The new asteroid, called 2010 AL30, was discovered by the NASA-funded Lincoln Near-Earth Asteroid Research program, and announced Monday by the Minor Planet Center at the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory.

It should be noted that an asteroid this small probably would not cause major damage were it to impact Earth’s atmosphere, and would probably burn up before it reached the planet’s surface.

WILL NEW TECHNOLOGY BRING JUDGMENT DAY TO MOVIE THEATRES?

Jeffrey Newman — Tue, 05 Jan 2010 17:12:52 +0000

Do movie theatres face a bleak future as a result of digital technology advances that will allow for film viewing via computer tablets or television? Digital projectors exist in only 1500 screens across the country of a total of over 40,000 screens and the consumers are demanding higher quality images. The gaming industry is surpassing the film industry and the gaming audience is not going to theatres as much. Game sales have surpassed movie sales by billions. Games offer a higher level of immersion in the story than do films and many more hours of entertainment. In addition, some consumers see the cost of attending films as too high given what they can buy at home. Will theatres survive?

LEONARD COHEN “The Future”

Jeffrey Newman — Mon, 28 Dec 2009 17:27:20 +0000

“The Future”

Give me back my broken night
my mirrored room, my secret life
it’s lonely here,
there’s no one left to torture
Give me absolute control
over every living soul
And lie beside me, baby,
that’s an order!
Give me crack and anal sex
Take the only tree that’s left
and stuff it up the hole
in your culture
Give me back the Berlin wall
give me Stalin and St Paul
I’ve seen the future, brother:
it is murder.

Things are going to slide, slide in all directions
Won’t be nothing
Nothing you can measure anymore
The blizzard, the blizzard of the world
has crossed the threshold
and it has overturned
the order of the soul
When they said REPENT REPENT
I wonder what they meant
When they said REPENT REPENT
I wonder what they meant
When they said REPENT REPENT
I wonder what they meant

You don’t know me from the wind
you never will, you never did
I’m the little jew
who wrote the Bible
I’ve seen the nations rise and fall
I’ve heard their stories, heard them all
but love’s the only engine of survival
Your servant here, he has been told
to say it clear, to say it cold:
It’s over, it ain’t going
any further
And now the wheels of heaven stop
you feel the devil’s riding crop
Get ready for the future:
it is murder

Things are going to slide …

There’ll be the breaking of the ancient
western code
Your private life will suddenly explode
There’ll be phantoms
There’ll be fires on the road
and the white man dancing
You’ll see a woman
hanging upside down
her features covered by her fallen gown
and all the lousy little poets
coming round
tryin’ to sound like Charlie Manson
and the white man dancin’

Give me back the Berlin wall
Give me Stalin and St Paul
Give me Christ
or give me Hiroshima
Destroy another fetus now
We don’t like children anyhow
I’ve seen the future, baby:
it is murder

Things are going to slide …

When they said REPENT REPENT …

Organizations Focused On The Future of the World

Jeffrey Newman — Fri, 04 Dec 2009 19:27:02 +0000

Association of Professional Futurists – A community of professional futurists committed to leadership and excellence in the futures field.
The Calousian Association – A membership organization of those wanting to help the humanity in reaching Calousia, the humanity’s state of high-capacity existence.
The Centre for Future Studies – Futures think tank focused on future trends and their impacts for applications including product development, strategy formulation, marketing communications, customer relationship management; trends analyses, scenarios and predictions, upcoming events, and discussion forum.
The Club of Rome – International think tank composed of prominent intellectuals and decision-makers analyzing global, interlinked, long-term problems challenging the future of humanity and the planet using systems analysis and futures research; site offers reports, upcoming events, a forum, and links to further resources.
Copenhagen Institute for Futures Studies – A Danish independent institution with the objective of researching the future for public and private organizations, in order to strengthen their basis for decision-making. Bilingual site.
Craig Research Labs – A private sector scientific research firm, existing to accelerate the technological development of the human race.
The DaVinci Institute – Comprised of over 150 scientists, researchers, and futurists located across the United States, its goal being to track emerging technologies and speculate about future inventions.
The Digital Exploration Society – DEX – Multimedia authoring from remote, natural places allows children and adults to understand how to express themselves in the new media world of global digital communication.
Foresight for the European Research Area (FORERA) – Foresight provides a framework for a group of people concerned with an issue at stake, such as future of EU manufacturing, research and development and innovation priorities, transport and mobility.
Foresight Institute – “The non-profit Foresight Institute focuses its efforts on nanotechnology, the coming ability to build materials and products with atomic precision, and systems that will enhance knowledge exchange and critical discussion, thus improving public and private policy decisions.”
Foundation for the Future – Non-profit organization offers seminars and publications related to envisioning future human evolution. Includes nomination information of the Kistler Prize for excellence in human genetics research.
Frontier Organizations on the Web – - A list of organizations engaged in frontier and visionary work such as future studies, philosophy, personal and social liberation, and advanced technology
Future 25 – The international branch of the German registered society `Zukunft 25 e.V.’ which is dedicated to promoting thinking and acting in long time spans.
Global Business Network – A membership organization specializing in scenario thinking and collaborative learning about the future. Their worldwide network includes strategists from more than 50 leading companies, as well as experts from the arts, sciences, business, and academia.
Imagitrends – Non-profit organization focused on sustainable development offers free e-journal and provides environmental scanning services related to trend-spotting.
Institute for Alternative Futures – Nonprofit research and educational organization specializing in aiding organizations and individuals to more wisely choose and create their preferred futures.
Institute for Ethics and Emerging Technologies – A nonprofit organization in the United States seeking to contribute to the understanding of the impact of emerging technologies on individuals and societies.
Institute for Future Studies (IFS) – Conducts research and public discussion of questions concerning future use of information and communication technologies, especially in the professional and educational worlds. Staff profiles, services and current project information, and publication library provided.
Institute for Prospective Technological Studies (IPTS) – One of the eight Research Institutes of the European Commission (EC), the IPTS organizes regional foresight studies on science and technology to inform political and economic decision-makers.
The Interstellar Panspermia Society – Dedicated to promoting the future of life in space by directed panspermia missions.
The Long Now Foundation – A project of computer pioneer Daniel Hillis and Whole Earth founder Stewart Brand to develop a 10,000 year clock. This is long-term project that gets people thinking past the mental barrier of the Millennium.
The Millennium Project – Think tank of futurists, scholars, business planners, and policy makers.
The Mother’s Service Society, Pondicherry, India – Social science research institute which has done extensive research in such areas as social development theory, economics, management, peace and governance, the future of money, the future role of the Internet, the future of science, the future World Army, and the Global Century.
New Civilization Network – A network of people, projects and ideas for building a world that works.
New Environment Association – Background and current activities directed toward achieving a sustainable world that is supportive of all human beings.
NewDay.nl – Dutch community from people who have doubts about the future.
Northern Land Use Institute – Planning, environment and Land Use Issues of Northern British Columbia are all the focus of the Northern Land Use Institute at the University of Northern British Columbia
Shaping Tomorrow – Helps people and organizations better anticipate and respond to upcoming change through research and programs that review critical uncertainties, challenges and trends.
World Future Society – For people interested in how social and technological developments are shaping the future. Futurist forecasts, interviews, publications, upcoming events, and organization information.
World Futures Studies Federation – A professional society of futures researchers, academics, consultants, and their affiliated organizations. Includes activities, events, newsletter (and archives), membership directory, and members-only sections (fee required to join).
World Resources Institute – Non-profit organization supporting research, conferences, education, training, and policy initiatives for environmental stewardship and sustainable development; resources available online include essays, research reports, and powerpoint presentations.
World Space League – Primary Objective: To establish a World Wide Network of people who believe that Space Business / Travel /Education should be available to all people regardless of age, race, religion and income.
World-Information.org – Organization explores implications of new information and communication technologies. Includes press releases, information on events and exhibits, and links to related resources.

UltraFuture World – A global thinktank and brain trust that creates and facilitates events, media and projects on the leading-edges of technology and culture. (November 11, 2007)

2012 film review

Jeffrey Newman — Sat, 28 Nov 2009 00:23:05 +0000

2012, the apocalyptic tome now on screen is, as it would be expected, strong on visuals and sound effects, grossly weak on plot, devoid of characterization and repleat with the worst dialogue ever concocted. I tried mightily to suspend my disbelief but was successful for about 30 minutes out of the nearly three hours of the film. What disturbed me the most was that the film dragged and dragged, lacking any significant editing. The creators just could not let go of what they shot and as such the film suffered and and did not flow. In places, some real science was thrown in, including a reversal of the magnetic field of the earth. This is an established and interesting phenominon which will occur at some point. I have a neighbor who teaches at Harvard who is one of the world’s experts on this and I plan on cornering him on the details for a separate blog for this site. I think the film could have done more to explain the basic science of what was actually destroying the world. I am convinced that there is a way to handle apocalyptic films in a fashion that will entertain, enlighten and entice. On the Beach was just such a film. Next week: THE ROAD.

SUDDEN FREEZING NORTHERN HEMISPHERE 12,800 YRS.AGO

Jeffrey Newman — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 21:03:52 +0000

Scientists have found definitive evidence that the northern hemisphere of the earth was put into a speedy deep freeze 12,800 years ago, over a period of just months, resulting from a sudden slowdown of the gulf stream. This allowed ice to spread hundreds of miles southward from the arctic. Previous research suggested that the change took over ten years. William Patterson, Geological Sciences Professor of The University of Saskatchewan in Saskatoon Canada, who conducted the extensive study said that the findings suggest that the earth’s ckimate is unstable and can flip from warm to cold rapidly with the right trigger. Some scientists have suggested that if the Greenland ice cap melts, a similarly dramatic effect may occur by disrupting the ocean currents.