The Future: Promising or Foreboding?

Paper Summary:

The paper discusses how it is relatively easy to be pessimistic about the future in our modern world. The paper notes the daily reports about wars, terrorism, increasing poverty, the spread of HIV/AIDS and many factors that suggest that the future is a very bleak one. The paper suggests, however, that there has been an overemphasis on the negative view of life in modern society. The paper looks at phenomena such as global warming, the energy shortage, the advent of the Internet and the field of science and technology in a positive light and maintains that civilization has potential for a positive future.

Outline:
Global Warming and Climate Change
Energy Resources
Communications
Science and Technology
Education
Conclusion

From the Paper:

"It is relatively easy to be pessimistic about the future in our modern world. One only has to glance at the news to find aspects of our world that portend a gloomy and depressing future. There are daily reports about wars, terrorism, increasing poverty, the spread and HV/Aids and a host of other factors that suggest that the future is a very bleak for humanity on this planet. The recent announcement from the scientific community about the increase in global warming and climate change suggests that the entire human species might disappear in the future. One could easily fill an entire book with dire and pessimistic prophesies about event that bode ill for the future of humanity."

Sample of Sources Used:

• Anti-aging Medicine Test for Measuring Functional Real Age. Retrieved March 27, 2007, from http://labshelf.com/anti-aging-medicine.html
• Barnes, S. (2004, November). Human-Built World: How to Think about Technology and Culture. History Today, 54, 85+. Retrieved March 27, 2007, from Questia database: http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=5007705860
• Barr, S. M. (1999, April). What Remains to Be Discovered: Mapping the Secrets of the Universe, Origins of Life, and the Future of the Human Race. First Things: A Monthly Journal of Religion and Public Life 46. Retrieved March 27, 2007, from Questia database: http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=5001244814
• Colborn, M. (2007, January/February). How Attitudes Shape Our Future: Our Feelings and Attitudes about the Future and Its Risks Can Lead to Either Triumph or Disaster. Using Global Warming as a Case Study, a Psychologist Explains Why. The Futurist, 41, 68+. Retrieved March 27, 2007, from Questia database: http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=5018738696
• Creating a More Intelligent Future. Retrieved March 27, 2007, from http://www.wfs.org/futarticlend04.htm

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