Word: futurist
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
Confronting the relentless arithmetic of human reproduction is a bit like reading one of Futurist Herman Kahn's nuclear scenarios. One of them deals in "mega-deaths," and the other in what might be called "mega-lives," but the pall of a weirdly objectified apocalypse hangs over both. By the year 2000, some accountants of population figure, the number of the planet's inhabitants will double to 7 billion; by 2025, it will be 15 billion, by 2050, 30 billion, so that in less than a century there will be ten people living for every one now existing...
Open admissions programs at universities strike Middle Americans as unfair and illogical violations of the merit system. Beyond that, they see a bias toward blacks in conventional admissions policies. "If anything," says Futurist Herman Kahn, "they believe that a black face helps. A Middle American can't send his kid to Harvard, but he knows the black man down the street can, if the boy is bright enough." Middle American workers frequently feel that blacks are given preferential treatment in job hiring. Says Harvard Psychiatrist Robert Coles, who has made a study of the grievances of Middle America: "They...
There is a fifty-fifty chance, says Futurist Herman Kahn, director of the Hudson Institute, that working hours will be markedly shorter. Eventually, the American employee will have the option of deciding whether he wants his increased income in money or in greater leisure time. The goal of most Americans will be self-fulfillment rather than self-sacrifice. In everything, the emphasis will be on experimentation. "The idea of redesigning a way of life is going to be the dominant theme of the '70s," says Behaviorist B. F. Skinner. Young people will continue to fear large institutions, he believes...
...happened in Europe; factory workers will reject the monotony of the assembly line. Employees at all levels will demand that corporate goals mesh with their personal goals, and socially irresponsible companies will not be able to attract talent. "People will have to be recognized as individuals," says French Futurist Bertrand de Jouvenel. "You have to acknowledge man as a human being. If you forget this, you lose everything...
...curious that Henry Kissinger, the futurist who demands that the U.S. look far ahead before deciding what to do tomorrow morning, should be so much at home in the 19th century. However, states and statesmen were more predictable during that period, and the margin for error was a little greater. He is not alone in arguing that the U.S. could benefit from reading?and understanding?history. "The pre-eminent task of American foreign policy," he has said, "ought to be to get some reputation for steadiness. Whether we are dangerous to our enemies one can argue, but we are murder...