Questions along the lines of “When does the future start?” have perplexed scholars for . . . some time. For example, do people tend to think that The Future begins immediately* after The Present, or is its arrival more ‘smeared out’? [see illustrations] Steps towards answering this puzzle have recently been taken by Professor Hal […]
Tag: future
Can trends in baby’s names foreshadow major social events? (new study)
“Before 1992, the names ‘Hillary’ and ‘Hilary’ had been increasing in popularity for several decades. After 1992, however, their popularity dropped suddenly 10-fold.” – explains Stefano Ghirlanda who is Professor of Psychology, Biology, and Anthropology, Brooklyn College, CUNY, and Founder and fellow, Centre for the Study of Cultural Evolution, Stockholm University. With this in mind, […]
Future Sock
“Why do people need to keep on buying so many socks? Given the technological capabilities available, the creation of socks that do not wear out would not seem to be beyond our collective productive capacities. Indeed, […] they already exist, but the space to make this choice has not been opened up. They are not […]
New Internet search fails to turn up evidence of time travelers
Internet search engines are not yet reliable enough to find evidence of time travelers — if that information exists and if it’s findable. That’s what this new study suggests: “Searching the Internet for evidence of time travelers,” Robert J. Nemiroff [pictured above], Teresa Wilson [pictured below], arXiv:1312.7128, December 26, 2013. The authors, at Michigan Tech, write: “Time […]
Confused muddling: the future
“Future Reflections” is a 20-minute-long video, a meandering discussion of what the future might have meant, or might some day mean, or might some day have meant, perhaps from the point of view of people in the future or of people in the recent past who are imagining the future. The video documents some thoughts […]
Newspapers now in the future
Newspapers today, as prognosticated by T. Baron Russell in 1906 in his book A Hundred Years Hence: the regeneration of the newspaper will be forced upon the newspaper-office by the development of public intelligence.… a well-informed public will resent obvious garbling or clearly unfair selection. The newspaper reader will no longer (as now) want only […]
War today in the future
War today, as prognosticated by T. Baron Russell in 1906 in his book A Hundred Years Hence: we may take it as quite certain that war as an institution will be as obsolete as gladiators in the year 2000. Even if the increasing amenity of the human race did not abolish war, two other things […]
Advertising now in the future
Advertising today, as prognosticated by T. Baron Russell in 1906 in his book A Hundred Years Hence: advertising will in the future world become gradually more and more intelligent in tone. It will seek to influence demand by argument instead of clamour, a tendency already more apparent every year. Cheap attention-calling tricks and clap-trap will […]