State
of the Future 2008
by
Gregor
Wolbring
09/30/08
The
2008 State
of the
Future written and compiled by Jerome C. Glenn, Theodore J.
Gordon, and Elizabeth
Florescu from the Millennium Project
came out
recently. This column is about making you aware of the publication and
the
process. Most of the info is taken directly from the webpage without
paraphrasing.
The
2008
State of the Future is composed of two parts: print
and CD. The print
book contains the executive summary of each of the studies conducted in
2007–08. The enclosed CD of about 6,300 pages contains the cumulative
work of
the Millennium Project since 1996 and details of the studies included
in the
print section. The executive summary can be found here.
The
State of the report coves 15 Global Challenges namely:
1.
How can sustainable development be
achieved for all while addressing global climate change?
2.
How can everyone have sufficient clean
water without conflict?
3.
How can population growth and resources
be brought into balance?
4.
How can genuine democracy emerge from
authoritarian regimes?
5.
How can policymaking be made more
sensitive to global long-term perspectives?
6.
How can the global convergence of
information and communications technologies work for everyone?
7.
How can ethical market economies be
encouraged to help reduce the gap between rich and poor?
8.
How can the threat of new and reemerging
diseases and immune microorganisms be reduced?
9.
How can the capacity to decide be
improved as the nature of work and institutions change?
10.
How can shared values and new security
strategies reduce ethnic conflicts, terrorism, and the use of weapons
of mass
destruction?
11.
How can the changing status of women help
improve the human condition?
12.
How can transnational organized crime
networks be stopped from becoming more powerful and sophisticated
global
enterprises?
13.
How can growing energy demands be met
safely and efficiently?
14.
How can scientific and technological
breakthroughs be accelerated to improve the human condition?
15.
How can ethical considerations become
more routinely incorporated into global decisions?
The
Choice is Yours:
It
seems the State of the
Future is something many people should give their input on whether its retroactive on the 2008
report or through involvement in
the commenting phase of the 2009 report. Any feedback could lead to a
better
product. A short (about 2 minutes) video versions of each of the 15
Global Challeges is
available on YouTube
Comments are invited either on YouTube, or using the forms on the
website Invitation and
instructions to update and improve the Global Challenges Facing Humanity.
Furthermore
one can
participate in Millennia 2015
Study: Developments to Improve the Status of Women
And
every year there is a - World Competition for Highschool
Students Addressing the Global Future. I think not enough high school
students take
advantage of this opportunity. For this year you can have a look Global
Millennium Prize 2008-
As
usual, the more people
participate the more they can shape the future.
Gregor
Wolbring is
an ability and ableism ethics
and governance, science and technology governance, disability
studies and health policy scholar. He is an Assistant
Professor at the
University of Calgary, Faculty of Medicine, Department of Community
Health
Sciences, Program in Disability Studies and Community Rehabilitation.
He is a
member of the Center for Nanotechnology and Society at Arizona State
University; Part Time Professor at Faculty of Law, University of
Ottawa,
Canada; Adjunct Faculty, Critical Disability Studies, York University,
Toronto,
Canada; Member CAC/ISO - Canadian Advisory Committees for the
International Organization for Standardization section TC229
Nanotechnologies;
Member: Review Board of the Journal,
Review in Disability Studies; Member, International
Editorial
Advisory Board, Journal: Studies
in
Ethics, Law and Technology; Chair of the Bioethics Taskforce
of Disabled People's
International; and former
Member of the Executive of the Canadian Commission for UNESCO
(2003-2007
maximum terms served). He publishes the Bioethics,
Culture and
Disability website, authors a weblog on Nano Bio Info Cogno Synbio
and its
social implications, maintains a blog on Ableism
ethics and governance and
is a
regular contributor to the What Sorts of
People blog.
Please contact the author for additional information
on this article or
for other references at gwolbrin@ucalgary.ca
© Gregor Wolbring, All Rights Reserved, 2008. Please contact
the author for
permission to reprint.