2011 State of the Future

The Millennium Project’s 2011 State of the Future Report, due out August 1, finds that while people are getting richer, healthier, better educated, and living longer, and the world is more peaceful and better connected, half of the world is potentially unstable.

Food prices are rising, water tables are falling, corruption and organized crime is increasing, environmental viability for life support is diminishing, debt and economic insecurity are increasing, climate change continues, and the gap between the rich and poor is widening dangerously. People voting in elections, corruption, people killed or injured in terrorist attacks, and refugees and displaced persons are also identified as key problems. The world is in a race between implementing ever-increasing ways to improve the human condition and the seemingly ever-increasing complexity and scale of global problems. (...) Know more at http://goo.gl/3oN8q.

Where we are winning. An international Delphi panel selected more than 100 indicators of progress or regress for the 15 Global Challenges. Indicators were then chosen that had at least 20 years of reliable historical data and later, where possible, were matched with variables used in the International Futures model. The resulting 28 variables were integrated into the State of the Future Index with a 10-year projection. (Credit: The Millennium Project)

Where we are losing (credit: The Millennium Project)

Wireless power cut cord of patients with implanted heart pumps

Researchers at the University of Washington and the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center have tested a wireless power system for ventricular assist devices (mechanical pumps to give failing hearts a boost), or VADs. VAD were developed as temporary measures for patients awaiting a heart transplant. Technology has evolved and these ventricular assist devices operate in patients for years. Using the wireless system means no power cord poking through the skin, reducing the risk of infection and improving the patient’s quality of life. (...) Researchers envision a future where patients would install transmission coils in their homes and workplaces to create zones where the implant would receive uninterrupted power. (...) Know more at http://goo.gl/64Xqv.

You Are Not Your Brain: The Four-Step Solution for Changing Bad Habits, Ending Unhealthy Thinking, and Taking Control of Your Life

Two neuroscience experts explain how their 4-Step Method can help break destructive thoughts and actions and change bad habits for good. A leading neuroplasticity researcher and the coauthor of the groundbreaking books Brain Lock and The Mind and the Brain, Jeffrey M. Schwartz has spent his career studying the structure and neuronal firing patterns. (...). Know more at http://goo.gl/tb6ii.

Code/Space: Software and Everyday Life

After little more than half a century since its initial development, computer code is extensively and intimately woven into the fabric of our everyday lives. From the digital alarm clock that wakes us to the air traffic control system that guides our plane in for a landing, software is shaping our world. Know more here http://goo.gl/06sSW. 

Forever online: Your digital legacy

May 3, 2011

Source Link: New Scientist

Your photos, status updates and tweets will fascinate future historians. Will these online remains last forever? In this special report, newscientist.com editor Sumit Paul-Choudhury reports on life, loss, memory and forgetting in the Internet age. It includes: The fate of your online soul: We are the first people in history to create vast online records of (…).