Predictions: Thirty Great Minds on the Future

Expanded from a set of profiles that first appeared in the (London) Times Higher Education Supplement, this dizzying, upbeat look into the new century brings together 30 thinkers, writers, scientists and academics offering bold predictions and, in some cases, prescriptions. Arthur C. Clarke predicts that artificial intelligence will reach human levels by 2020 and that spaceships will travel close to the speed of light by century's end. Steven Pinker foresees a dissolving of the boundaries between the arts, humanities and hard sciences, thanks to gene mapping and computer modeling of the mind's workings. Francis Fukuyama opines that the growing participation of women in politics will reduce wars. On the prescriptive side, John Kenneth Galbraith urges ample economic aid from the rich nations to the poor; Peter Singer envisages an animal-friendly future where people, at least in developed countries, do not use animals for food; and Andrea Dworkin sets forth a galvanizing one-page manifesto of women's rights, calling for the primacy of women in all areas of culture. Not all the prognosticators are optimists: for instance, Daniel Dennett believes the worst features of capitalism, popular culture and high-tech wizardry will wreak havoc on an unprepared but receptive world. Too many contributors are reluctant or vague (Umberto Eco, Stephen Jay Gould, Noam Chomsky), and too many make predictions based on their own agendas. Consequently, this cacophony of voices works much better as a lively survey of the crosscurrents of contemporary thought than as a guide to the next century. (Mar.)