A number of the futurist email lists I belong to have been full of questions about how optimistic we should be about the future. Some of the discussion is about whether Ray Kurzweil’s predictions will come true as soon as he thinks (will we have artificial intelligence in 2030 or 2050 or 2070?). […]

I heard the news today. Sir Richard Branson is offering a $25 Million Climate Challenge prize, to be awarded to one who develops a means of removing green house gases from the atmosphere. Al Gore joined in the announcement. Branson also also intends to invest $3 Billion in fighting global warming.
Of course […]

Synchronicity, or maybe just the luck of a vague clue about the issues, strikes today. I posted yesterday about a coming budget tension between space (defense, weapons, and exploration) and climate change mitigation. Well, today, Wired is displaying an article headlined: Bush Budget Funds NASA, Cuts EPA, by Luke O’Brien. The […]

There has always been tension between space exploration and everything else. Expect that tension to become visible again soon. The fiscal drain of the Iraq war will be set against two needs with far greater long-term impact on our future than the war.
First, there will be more demand for funding for climate change […]

To me, the leading authority on the current state of world oil supply is Matthew Simmons, author of Twilight in the Desert.
He recently appeared on Bloomberg TV, and suggested that the current supply stream of 85 million barrels a day is more likely to go toward 70 than toward 100. He explains why this […]