Tag: Future

A look at Isaac Asimov’s predictions from 1964, 50 years later [Article]

Asimov wasn’t the only person to peer into the future and get it right. But take a look at what he predicted, in 1964:

“[M]ankind will suffer badly from the disease of boredom, a disease spreading more widely each year and growing in intensity. This will have serious mental, emotional and sociological consequences, and I dare say that psychiatry will be far and away the most important medical specialty in 2014.”

Going back in time – @jobsworth took me down memory lane [Article]

+JP Rangaswami has a way with words, and especially when using history as a guide to the future. This post reminded me of my childhood-  when the medication for almost all ills could be found without the need for a prescription:

 Stomach ache? A spoonful of omum water. Sore throat? Gargle with warm salt water. Cough and cold? Vicks Vaporub, with or without head-under-covers steam session, depending on how chesty the cough was. Cough continues? Vasaka syrup. Really bad? Benadryl. Fever? Blankets and rest. Sweat it out. 

This post is not about that though. JP cuts to the quintessence of the conversation that is called “market”, the need for generic rather than the brand.

The owners of the future [Articles]

Jaron Lanier, author of  “Who owns the future?”, says we’re being enslaved by free information. He explains in this interview.

Evgeny Morozov takes the opposite view – he thinks there are many simpler ways to protect the middle classes. Pushing technology companies to provide better working conditions — it was only last year that Amazon agreed to install air conditioning in its warehouses — and closing numerous tax loopholes would be a good start. Lanier’s solution, alas, is an odd and unfortunate distraction.

Prof. Noam Chomsky on how to destroy the future [Article]

Prof Chomsky writes a powerful article in the Guardian

For the first time in the history of the human species, we have clearly developed the capacity to destroy ourselves. That’s been true since 1945. It’s now being finally recognized that there are more long-term processes like environmental destruction leading in the same direction, maybe not to total destruction, but at least to the destruction of the capacity for a decent existence.