The Way We Will Be 50 Years from Today

Book excerpt: The world is an uncertain place, which is why the future and the unknown absolutely fascinate us. Veteran television journalist Mike Wallace asked the question "What will life be like 50 years from now?" to sixty of the world's greatest minds. Their responses offer a fascinating glimpse into the cultural, scientific, political, and spiritual moods of the times. Edited and with an introduction by Mike Wallace, this book provides an imaginative and thought-provoking look into our collective soul and the critical issues that underlie our hopes, prayers, fears, and dreams for life in the 21st century. Contributors include former presidents, leading scientists, noted writers and artists, respected religious leaders, and current political figures, including: Vint Cerf, Vice President of Google; known as a "Father of the Internet" Francis S. Collins, M.D., Ph.D., a geneticist who led the Human Genome Project Dr. Wanda Jones, Director of the Office on Women's Health at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Ray Kurzweil, an inventor whose developments include the first print-to-speech reading machine for the blind and the first text-to-speech synthesizer General James E. Cartwright, Commander of United States Strategic Command Kim Dae-jung, the former President of the Republic of Korea Ronald Noble, Secretary General of Interpol Norman Borlaug, Nobel Peace Prize winner; called "the father of the Green Revolution" Carol Bellamy, former Executive Director UNICEF, first former volunteer to serve as director of Peace Corp, and current president and CEO of World Learning Gerardus 't Hooft, Professor of Theoretical Physics at Utrecht University in the Netherlands; Nobel Prize in Physics Craig Newmark, Internet pioneer and founder of craigslist