-Caveat Lector- >From The Cincinnati Post, http://www.cincypost.com/opinion/mcfeat122900.html - Warning: future appears turbulent Column by Dale McFeatters The top seers and swamis at the World Future Society have squinted over the horizon and come up with a forecast of what's in store for us in the coming decade, century and millennium. It is not a pretty sight. For a start, it's good-bye to Socks and Buddy. And maybe good-bye to us. Intelligent robot pets will be common by 2005 and outnumber ''organic pets'' by 2020. Their owners might not be real, either. ''Virtual assistants'' will start replacing executive secretaries in 2007, and by 2020 we'll be sharing the planet with synthetic intelligent life forms that will have legal rights, meaning that as lawsuits become ever more creative and pervasive you might be sued by your virtual cat. But there's new hope for medieval French lit majors. A liberal arts degree will be more valuable than a specialized education because technology will change so fast than no sooner is a technical skill mastered than it's obsolete. While the college degree is nice, it will probably be from Rec Room U. Home schooling will lead to a home-college movement and 50 percent of private colleges and 10 percent of public colleges will close because so many students are staying home to study online. But the new jobs will be fun, fun, fun. Thanks to improved productivity and longer lifespans, people will have more free time - where have we heard that one before - and thus leisure-oriented businesses - think 21st-century amusement parks - will dominate the world economy and account for half of U.S. GDP by 2015. President Clinton was wrong when he said most workers will change jobs six or seven times in a career. The futurists say most workers will stay with a single company throughout their working lives. Companies will not so much hire workers as adopt them. Most baby boomers will keep working after they retire - they'll have to because of inadequate pensions and Social Security. But help is on the way. The ''echo boomers,'' the 80 million Americans born from 1977 to 1997, will be a far more money-savvy generation, flush with cash and economic clout. That's good because if the futurists are right, they'll be supporting their parents. The generation that follows may be a faint echo indeed. More people will elect to remain single and postpone having children who will be mostly girls when they do have them. But there's no rush because medical advances will allow women to delay menopause until 70. That means people in their 80s will be raising teenage daughters, which goes a long way toward explaining the next prediction. Mental illness will reach epidemic proportions as the population ages. But no less a person than Sir Arthur Clarke says that electronic monitoring will eliminate professional criminals from society by 2010. That would still leave us at the mercy of random pyschos and disgruntled day traders and software testers. Specially bred bacteria will extract oil reserves that cannot now be tapped through conventional methods, but in 50 years we won't need the oil anyway because thermonuclear fusion will provide us with unlimited, cheap energy in the form of hydrogen. Nobody has said what happens when the bugs run out of oil and start heading our way. Perhaps nothing because we might not even be here. Humans will land on Mars in 2022, opening the way for colonization, and on Halley's Comet in 2061, where we will discover both active and dormant life forms. That's important because by the year 3000 most economic activity will be in outer space and it would be good to have a ready-made customer base already there. There's the future for you. Don't say you weren't warned. It may not be too late to turn back. Dale McFeatters is a columnist for Scripps Howard News Service. Publication date: 12-29-00 <A HREF="http://www.ctrl.org/">www.ctrl.org</A> DECLARATION & DISCLAIMER ========== CTRL is a discussion & informational exchange list. Proselytizing propagandic screeds are unwelcomed. Substance�not soap-boxing�please! These are sordid matters and 'conspiracy theory'�with its many half-truths, mis- directions and outright frauds�is used politically by different groups with major and minor effects spread throughout the spectrum of time and thought. That being said, CTRLgives no endorsement to the validity of posts, and always suggests to readers; be wary of what you read. CTRL gives no credence to Holocaust denial and nazi's need not apply. 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