Gazing into the future

2001. Coming soon to a planet near you.

The landmark date of dreamers and science fiction writers for the last hundred years -- that unimaginably distant time -- will actually be upon us the next time we flip a calendar page.

Once I'm scratching out 19-- on my cheques and writing in 2001, it is not going to seem very exotic any more. It's definitely a time for me to find a new way to think about the future.

And I've found it. The Futurist is the official publication of the World Future Society. It's an intriguing
blend of technology, demographics and imagination well worth exploring.

And, wonder of wonders, it has a sense of humour. An article on totally failed predictions in a recent issue was my favourite. "Forecasts that missed by a mile," the cover announced.The cover collage juxtaposed last year's Time cover naming Albert Einstein the man of the century with his science teacher's prediction that he would never amount to anything. Inside, writer Laura Lee included some real gems.

I won't tell you all of them - if you're sufficiently intrigued you can order back issues on the web site - but there are some too good to miss..

Remember the leisure society? This prediction has been around for a while, though you may not have time to remember it. It dates back far beyond the 1950s, when I thought it first appeared. In 1893, U.S. Senator W.A. Peffer, Kansas said, "Daily toil [in the next century] will be shortened to four or five hours."

Fans of Ally McBeal, The Practice and all those other shows will be glad that one prediction fell flat. "Laws will be simplified. Lawyers will have diminished, and their fees will have been vastly curtailed," journalist Junius Henri Brown wrote in 1893.

And my personal candidate for all time favourite: "By the turn of this century, we will live in a paperless society." Roger Smith, Chair of General Motors,
1966. This will make a rallying cry as I fight the daily avalanche!

There's more to Laura Lee's article than missed predictions: her essay on just why predictions sometimes stray so far off the mark is thought-provoking.

The web site includes information about the society's publications, but so far doesn't include articles from back issues. One thing it does provide: a list of the editor's favourite predictions from the current issue. To check that out, follow the link for "publications" and then "current issue."

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