The 2015–16 State of the Future is a compelling overview of humanity’s present situation, challenges and opportunities, potentials for the future, and actions and policies that could improve humanity’s outlook — in clear, precise, and readable text with unparalleled breadth and depth. “It is time for intolerance of irrelevant speeches and non-actions by leaders. The stakes are too high to tolerate business as usual”, warns the Executive Summary of the report.

The 2015–16 State of the Future brings together an extraordinarily diverse set of data, information, intelligence, and hopefully some wisdom about the future. This is the eighteenth edition of the State of the Future. We believe that each edition is better than the last. We update data, improve insights, and respond to feedback. You can add your feedback online at the Global Futures Intelligence System (themp.org). There is a comment icon in the lower right corner of the executive summary and the same for
every one of the 15 Global Challenges.

The short overviews of the 15 Global Challenges are getting longer and more detailed each year. In addition to giving you possibly the best overview in existence for each challenge, think of these as a reference to keep on your desk to return to as needed. Just as you would not speedread the encyclopedia, this section should also be taken in short doses. Take your time to reflect on what you are reading in each challenge and in the sections on the State of the Future Index and the Future Work/ Technology 2050.
This is the second year we have used the Global Futures Intelligence System to update and improve the State of the Future report. The challenges in GFIS are updated daily from news aggregations, scanning items, situation charts, and other resources, which has led to greater detail and depth than in the previous edition.

While this report presents the distilled results of recent research by The Millennium Project, GFIS contains the detailed background and data for that research, plus all of The Millennium Project’s research since its founding in 1996. It also contains the largest internationally peerreviewed set of methods to explore future possibilities ever assembled in one source. Readers of this report should subscribe to GFIS to keep up to date and participate in improving insights about future possibilities.

The purpose of futures research is to systematically explore, create, and test both possible and desirable futures in order to improve decisions. Just as the person on top of the mast on old sailing ships used to point out the rocks and safe channels to the captain below for the smooth running of the ship through uncharted waters, so too futurists with foresight systems for the world can point out problems and opportunities to leaders and the public around the world. Since decision-making is increasingly affected by globalization, global futures research is increasingly valuable for decision-making by individuals, groups, and institutions. The quality of democracies emerging around the world is enhanced by better-informed publics; understanding issues and opportunities in this report can contribute to improved democratic decision-making.

This report is for thought leaders, decision-makers, and all those who care about the world and its future. Readers will learn how their interests fit into the global situation and how the global situation may affect them and their interests. The State of the Future and GFIS provide an additional eye on global change. These are information utilities that
people can draw from as relevant to their unique needs. They provide an overview of the global strategic landscape. Business executives use the research as input to their strategic planning. University professors, futurists, and other consultants find this information useful in teaching and research.

The Millennium Project is a global participatory think tank of futurists, scholars, scientists, business planners, and policy makers who work for international organizations, governments, corporations, NGOs, and universities and who volunteer their time to improve each edition of the State of the Future. It was selected to be among the top
10 think tanks in the world for new ideas and paradigms by the 2013 and 2014 University of Pennsylvania’s GoTo Think Tank Index and as a 2012 Computerworld Honors Laureate for its innovations in collective intelligence systems.

The purposes of The Millennium Project are to assist in organizing futures research, improve thinking about the future, and make that thinking available through a variety of media for consideration in policymaking, advanced training, public education, and feedback, ideally in order to accumulate wisdom about potential futures.

The Project’s diversity of opinions and global views is ensured by its 56 Nodes around the world. These are groups of individuals and organizations that interconnect global and local perspectives. They identify participants, conduct interviews, translate and distribute questionnaires, and conduct research and conferences. It is through their contributions that the world picture of this report and indeed all of The Millennium Project’s work emerge.

Through its research, publications, addresses at conferences, and Nodes, The Millennium Project helps to nurture an international collaborative spirit of free inquiry and feedback for increasing collective intelligence to improve social, technical, and environmental viability for human development. Feedback on any sections of the book is most
welcome and may help shape the next State of the Future, GFIS, and the general work of The Millennium Project.

Read more

Washington, DC (PRWEB) July 07, 2015

Lone Wolf (LW) terrorism is on the rise around the world but it can get a lot worse when self-motivated bad guys make weapons of mass destruction in their kitchens or bio-labs. Could 100,000 People be Killed in a Single Lone Wolf Attack? When? Where? And How Could this be Prevented?

In a recent study, half of an international group of security and other experts forecasted that a single individual could kill 100,000 people or more in a single attack by 2050. Or not: the other half of the panel said such an event might happen after the turn of the next century or never.

While there was sharp disagreement among the experts, we already know that lone wolf terrorists have tried to build these massively destructive weapons and the FBI is already using the term WMD in many of their indictments.

As a new book titled Lone Wolf Terrorism Prospects just released by a Millennium Project team points out, systems of pre-detection are also being developed that can identify suspicious individuals by using tools that monitor communications and behavior, or new techniques from psychology, brain anatomy, and genetics. Or synthesize information from all of these imperfect sources.

The book sketches the increasing race between the growing destructive capacity of lone wolves and the improving tools of detection and interdiction. “The outcome of this race will set the world security stage for decades”, comments Ted Gordon, lead author of the book.

Around this fascinating and dangerous interplay between multiple single aggressors with increasingly destructive power, and the development of means for identifying destructive intent in individuals before they act, lie a host of legal and moral issues that will test our will as a free society.

Will the methods of detection be adequate and timely enough to avoid catastrophe? If they are implemented will we be able to maintain our freedoms?

The book is available as a 200-page paperback through Amazon and downloadable as a pdf file on http://www.lonewolfthreat.com. For single review copies please email [email protected].

The authors of the book are:
Theodore Jay Gordon, co-founder of The Millennium Project, author of the Macmillan encyclopedia article on the future of science and technology and currently on the editorial board of Technological Forecasting and Social Change.
Dr. Yair Sharan, a retired colonel in the Israeli Defense force, currently the director of TAM-C/FIRST group, active in the security and technology fields. He has been a senior associate researcher in Begin-Sadat Center for strategic studies (BESA) and has coordinated several EU projects, including FESTOS in the Security program and PRACTIS in the Science in Society program.
Elizabeth Florescu, Director of Research at The Millennium Project, co-author of the annual “State of the Future,” the report “Environmental Crimes, Military Actions, and the International Criminal Court” and involved in committees and forums addressing issues related to S&T, environment, security, international regulations, ontology, and knowledge management.

The Millennium Project is a global participatory think tank connecting 56 Nodes around the world that identify important long-range challenges and strategies, and initiate and conduct foresight studies, workshops, symposiums, and advanced training. Its mission is to improve thinking about the future and make it available through a variety of media for feedback to accumulate wisdom about the future for better decisions today. It produces the annual “State of the Future” reports, the “Futures Research Methodology” series, the Global Futures Intelligence System (GFIS), and special studies. Over 4,500 futurists, scholars, business planners, and policy makers who work for international organizations, governments, corporations, NGOs, and universities have participated in The Millennium Project’s research since its inception, in 1992. The Millennium Project was selected among the top ten think tanks in the world for new ideas and paradigms by the 2013 and 2014 University of Pennsylvania’s GoTo Think Tank Index, and 2012 Computerworld Honors Laureate for its contributions to collective intelligence systems.

Read more