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Each year since 1985, the editors of THE FUTURIST have selected the most thought-provoking ideas and forecasts appearing in the magazine to go into our annual Outlook report. Over the years, Outlook has spotlighted the emergence of such epochal developments as the Internet, virtual reality, and the end of the Cold War.

Here are the editors' top 10 forecasts from Outlook 2008:

1. The world will have a billion millionaires by 2025. Globalization and technological innovation are driving this increased prosperity. But challenges to prosperity will also become more acute, such as water shortages that will affect two-thirds of world population by 2025. --James Canton, author of "The Extreme Future," reviewed in THE FUTURIST May-June 2007, p. 54

2. Fashion will go wired as technologies and tastes converge to revolutionize the textile industry. Researchers in smart fabrics and intelligent textiles (SFIT) are working with the fashion industry to bring us color-changing or perfume-emitting jeans, wristwatches that work as digital wallets, and running shoes like the Nike +iPod that watch where you're going (possibly allowing others to do the same). Powering these gizmos remains a key obstacle. But industry watchers estimate that a $400 million market for SFIT is already in place and predict that smart fabrics could revitalize the U.S. and European textile industry. --Patrick Tucker, "Smart Fashion," Sep-Oct 2007, p. 68

3. The threat of another cold war with China, Russia, or both could replace terrorism as the chief foreign-policy concern of the United States. Scenarios for what a war with China or Russia would look like make the clashes and wars in which the United States is now involved seem insignificant. The power of radical jihadists is trivial compared with Soviet missile capabilities, for instance. The focus of U.S. foreign policy should thus be on preventing an engagement among Great Powers. --Edward N. Luttwak, "Preserving Balance among the Great Powers," Nov-Dec 2006, p. 26

4. Counterfeiting of currency will proliferate, driving the move toward a cashless society. Sophisticated new optical scanning technologies could, in the next five years, be a boon for currency counterfeiters, so societies are increasingly putting aside their privacy fears about going cashless. Meanwhile, cashless technologies are improving, making them far easier and safer to use. --Allen H. Kupetz, "Our Cashless Future," May-June 2007, p. 37

5. The earth is on the verge of a significant extinction event. The twenty-first century could witness a biodiversity collapse 100 to 1,000 times greater than any previous extinction since the dawn of humanity, according to the World Resources Institute. Protecting biodiversity in a time of increased resource consumption, overpopulation, and environmental degradation will require continued sacrifice on the part of local, often impoverished communities. Experts contend that incorporating local communities' economic interests into conservation plans will be essential to species protection in the next century. --World Trends & Forecasts, Nov-Dec 2006, p. 6

6. Water will be in the twenty-first century what oil was in the twentieth century. Global fresh water shortages and drought conditions are spreading in both the developed and developing world. In response, the dry state of California is building 13 desalination plants that could provide 10%-20% of the state's water in the next two decades. Desalination will become more mainstream by 2020. --William E. Halal, "Technology's Promise: Highlights from the TechCast Project," Nov-Dec, p. 44

7. World population by 2050 may grow larger than previously expected, due in part to healthier, longer-living people. Slower than expected declines of fertility in developing countries and increasing longevity in richer countries are contributing to a higher rate of population growth. As a result, the UN has increased its forecast for global population from 9.1 billion people by 2050 to 9.2 billion. --World Trends & Forecasts, Sep-Oct 2007, p. 10

8. The number of Africans imperiled by floods will grow 70-fold by 2080. The rapid urbanization taking place throughout much of Africa makes flooding particularly dangerous, altering the natural flow of water and cutting off escape routes. If global sea levels rise by the predicted 38 cm by 2080, the number of Africans affected by floods will grow from 1 million to 70 million. --World Trends & Forecasts, July-Aug 2007, p. 7

9. Rising prices for natural resources could lead to a full-scale rush to develop the Arctic. Not just oil and natural gas, but also the Arctic's supplies of nickel, copper, zinc, coal, freshwater, forests, and of course fish are highly coveted by the global economy. Whether the Arctic states tighten control over these commodities or find equitable and sustainable ways to share them will be a major political challenge in the decades ahead. --Lawson W. Brigham, "Thinking about the Arctic's Future: Scenarios for 2040," Sep-Oct 2007, p. 27

10. More decisions will be made by nonhuman entities. Electronically enabled teams in networks, robots with artificial intelligence, and other noncarbon life-forms will make financial, health, educational, and even political decisions for us. Reason: Technologies are increasing the complexity of our lives and human workers' competency is not keeping pace well enough to avoid disasters due to human error. --Arnold Brown, "'Not with a Bang': Civilization's Accelerating Challenge," Sep-Oct 2007, p. 38

All of these forecasts plus dozens more were included in the report that scanned the best writing and research from THE FUTURIST magazine over the course of the previous year. The Society hopes this report, covering developments in business and economics, demography, energy, the environment, health and medicine, resources, society and values, and technology, will assist its readers in preparing for the challenges and opportunities in 2008 and beyond.

The Outlook 2008 report was released as part of the November-December 2007 issue of THE FUTURIST magazine. An individual report can be obtained from the World Future Society for $5 in both print and online PDF format. Information on subscriptions can be obtained from the World Future Society, publisher of THE FUTURIST.

Now in Sylvia's book Prophecy she states:



Rising rate of skin cancer in the next five years leading up to 2010 especially in children

Between 2012 & 2013 a coalition of 5 major intl' corps will invest resources to revitalize the rainforests leading to cleaner air and decrease in chronic breathing disorders.

2024 acid rain becomes a regular part of our weather ecology

late 2020's is a survivalist era for us, we will have to wear special protective clothing and headgear, water will be astronomically expensive to the purification processes that will be needed. Birth defects and animal mutations will soar.

Late 2020's will also see the birth of domed cities on all continents, but starting in the USA, Europe with India and Middle East last to follow.

2020 global warming and pole tilt will reach their peaks, glaciers will be near extinction, worldwide floods, tidal waves and erosion will change coastlines on all continents.

Most dramatic tidal waves will be in the orient and florida between 2025 and 2030, high causualities in the orient. Florida waves will be part of a swarm of hurricanes, but survival will be high due to the dome cities and advance seawall systems which get started in early 2020's.

Plagues and rivers of red, but not due to armeggedon but due to flooding and tidal waves creating breeding grounds for insects. Frogs become a major problem between 2022 and 2027 in central and south america.
Gulf of Mexico and western rivers will turn red, due to erosion and underground eruptions and fault line disturbances in western US.

Starting in 2029, frequent meteor showers.

re-emergence of Atlantis and Lemuria.

I have no predictions, I just wanted to say I hope you keep this thread up throughout the year, so we can look back and say "WOW I read about that in this awesome guild I'm in!" razz heart

You don't have to be

The problem with psychics is that "Doom & Gloom predictions" sells better than the positive outlooks.


look for and support more positive predictions like:

your favourte movie star is going to marry their perfect match have a couple of kids and live happily ever after

Your pet is going to have babies

stuff along that line

Depends on your reaction to it, and how many others think the same way you do.

My predicitons are that the economy will get worse, The next president will be likely to be assassinated (Obama's highly likely win will not go over well with White Supremacists in the Deep South), and jobs will be harder to get due to said economic strain due to illegal immigrants working for less than minimum wage, paying no taxes or dues of anykind.

Look on the bright side, though.... What bright side? This world is going to Hell in a handbasket!

Has anyone ever contacted an extraterrestrial? I want off of this planet as soon as possible! Just don't play with Ouiji boards... they're nothing but trouble.

Actually the problem doesn't lie in immigrants, it lies in transnational businesses moving their business outside of the US to decrease their costs and increase their profits. You can't completely blame them though, I mean, that is one of the things the US is founded upon, the right to maximum profit. That and they are kind of doing a service to the other countries and helping their economy (thats not saying how much of a disservice that does to the US's economy).

Speaking of the US's economy, the reason why the Bush administration is hoping to get the tax thing passed (the one were everyone who made between a certain amount of money, gets something like $500), is so that we will (hopefully for them) put that money back into boosting our own economy by buying something(s) else. It doesn't help though when the somewhat smarter people (like over half of the people I know including myself) will use that money to pay off current debts, only boosting the credit economy. Of course, that is the same reason we get tax money back....(I'm in a social problems course and we just got done discussing some of this).