No future for the human race!

Humans have always been fascinated by the idea of space travel. Some even believe that colonizing new planets is man’s best hope for the future. The popular idea is that we’ll eventually need some fresh, unexploited new worlds to inhabit.
Professor Stephen Hawking, celebrated expert on the cosmological theories of gravity and black holes, believes that traveling into space is the only way humans will be able to survive in the long-term. He has said, "Life on Earth is at the ever-increasing risk of being wiped out by a disaster such as sudden global warming, nuclear war, a genetically engineered virus or other dangers ... I think the human race has no future if it doesn't go into space." Another of his famous quotes reiterates his position that we need to get off the planet relatively soon. "I don't think the human race will survive the next 1,000 years unless we spread into space."

Read more >>The "Hawking Solution": Will Saving Humanity Require Leaving Earth Behind?

BUYology...says Martin Lindstrom!

The forthcoming book Buyology, The Truth and Lies About Why We Buy by Lindstrom will be published by Random House Doubleday, on October 20th, this year.
The book is based on the largest neuromarketing study ever conducted in the world. A 7 million study which has gone to explore the truth and lies about why we buy. It contains some ground breaking findings, so ground breaking that CBS/60 Minutes will run a special on the book October 19th this year. The same will happen on The Today Show on October 20th.
Buyology, The Truth and Lies About Why We Buy. And we ask: are you ready for the revolution?

PREDICTING FUTURE HAPPINESS

Some people are naturally optimistic or pessimistic, but how accuratelythey predict the level of satisfaction they may attain in the future depends on a variety of factors, according to research published in PSYCHOLOGICAL SCIENCE.
In a study led by Brandeis University psychologist Margie Lachman, subjects were surveyed over a nine-year period. In the first survey, in1995-1996, participants between the ages of 24 and 74 rated their satisfaction with life now, with life 10 years earlier, and with howlife may be in another 10 years. They were asked the same questions again in 2004.
Lachman and colleagues discovered that there are age-related differences in how individuals view both the past and the future; thoseage 65 and older rated the past and present equally satisfying but predicted that the future would be less satisfying. Those under age 65 were more optimistic about the future and believed they would be moresatisfied a decade hence.
"These more negative expectations from older adults may be their way ofbracing for an uncertain future, a perspective that can serve aprotective function in the face of losses and that can have positive consequences if life circunstances turn out to be better than expected," says Lachman.
SOURCE: "Realism and Illusion in Americans' Temporal Views of TheirLife Satisfaction," PSYCHOLOGICAL SICENCE (September 2008)www.psychologicalscience.org

GAMING FOR FORECASTERS
A new research platform for collaboratively imagining futures scenarios through games has been launched by the Institute for the Future, an independent nonprofit research organization based in Palo Alto,California.
The first game to be launched in the new Massively MultiplayerForecasting platform is the Superstruct Game, which asks players to consider solutions to superthreats such as global food shortages, masshomelessness, and pandemics.
Other games will include earthquakes simulations and care giving. The goals of the games are to "addressreal-world problems by harnessing the wisdom of crowds," according tothe Institute.
Says IFTF's Howard Rheingold. "Massively multiplayer forecasting gamesis not just a new tool for forecasting, but also a continuation of IFTF's efforts to make forecasting more public, more inclusive, and more experiential."
Among the IFTF researchers involved in developing the Superstruct Game is Jamais Cascio, whose article on scenarios for the Singularity will appear in the November-December 2008 issue of THE FUTURIST.
SOURCES: Institute for the Future, www.iftf.org