THE NEXT ONE HUNDRED YEARS
We can expect a lot to happen over the next fifty to one hundred years. A lot of it will be cyclic—that is, old stuff repeating itself. Some of it will be totally new, or stuff that hasn't happened before. Almost all of it will be interesting.
The way I've decided to lay out this portion of my book is not unique. There is a system, developed by marketing professor Philip Kotler, that is currently being used by business executives in their decision-making processes. Monitoring these categories helps alert them to significant changes within the world of commerce and economics.
It is not a surprise that it is also the system of categories that was chosen by Edward Cornish, president of the World Future Society, to categorize world issues that are addressed within the magazine The Futurist, of which he is the editor.
Since most of my information was collected prior to thinking about how it would be presented, some of the titles for specific categories vary from Kotler's in some areas, but not significantly. For example, where he uses the term "pharmaceuticals," I have used the term "medicine"; another example would be his use of "airplanes" where I use the more general classification of "transportation."
The use of categories also permits the reader to quickly and easily locate an area of interest they might have, without having to wade through the less-interesting stuff.
Demography: Birth and Death, Children, Ethnic Groups, Marriage, Men & Women, Older Population, Populations, Religious Divisions, Significant Lifestyle Changes, Teens.
Economics: Advertising, Banking, Financial.
Environmental: Air, Biology, Bridges, Cities, Buildings, Forests, Geology, Highways, Land, Marine, Natural Disasters, Planetary Issues, Weather.
Governments: Crime, Diplomacy, Espionage, Ethics, Law, Military, Politics, Taxes, Schools, War (& Peace).
Social: Anthropology, Archaeology, Arts, Education, Entertainment, Families, Holidays, Language, Sex, Sports, General Social.
Technology: Computers, Engineering, Medicine, Nuclear Weapons, Power, Spaceships, Telecommunications, Transportation.