Keeping an Eye on Technology Futures, No Hidden Agendas, New Attitudes, No Platitudes!
People around the world are becoming healthier, wealthier, better educated, more peaceful, and increasingly connected, and they are living longer. At the same time, the world is more corrupt, congested, warmer, and increasingly dangerous. Although the digital divide is beginning to close, income gaps are still expanding and unemployment continues to grow.
The global economy grew at 5.4% in 2006 to $66 trillion. World population grew 1.1%, and the average per capita income increased by 4.3%. At this rate, world poverty will be cut by more than half between 2000 and 2015, except in sub-Saharan Africa.
Although the majority of the world is improving economically, income disparities are still enormous: Two percent of the world's richest people own more than 50% of the world's wealth, while the poorest 50% of people own 1%. The income of the 225 richest people in the world is equal to those of the poorest 2.7 billion, 40% of the world.
How many of those 225 wealthiest recognize the futility and danger of the wealth/poverty imbalance and, like Warren Buffet and Bill Gates, are investing to eliminate Poverty?
More than half the world's 6.6 billion people live in big cities. The information technology industry is laying the foundations for urban areas to become augmented by computing for everything, everywhere. Nanosensors and transceivers in nearly everything will make it easier to manage a city - from transportation to security.
Although great human tragedies like Iraq and Darfur dominate the news, the vast majority of the world is living in peace. Conflicts actually decreased over the past decade. Dialogs among differing worldviews are growing. Internal conflicts are increasingly being settled by international interventions, and the number of refugees is falling.
The world's average life expectancy is increasing from 48 years for those born in 1955 to 73 years for those who will be born in 2025. The global population is changing from high mortality and high fertility to low mortality and low fertility.
World population may increase by another 2.8 billion by 2050 before it begins to fall. It is projected to be 5.5 billion by 2100 - which is 1 billion fewer people than are alive today. People will live longer and have more productive lives than most people would believe possible today.
Technological breakthroughs are likely to change these forecasts over the next 50 years.
