Modern Scientist Predictions Isaac Asimov

About the predictions both right and wrong of modern scientist Isaac Asimov including ones on equality of the sexes, diet, and age.

PREDICTIONS BY MODERN SCIENTISTS

Predictor: ISAAC ASIMOV

A biochemist and writer of popular science fiction, Russian-born Isaac Asimov is an associate professor at Boston University's School of Medicine. According to International Who's Who, his response to a question about his leisure interests was "No leisure."

Past Predictions: Right--In 1966 Asimov predicted that people would get over their food prejudices. He said that diets would become less specialized, with a tendency away from meat and toward fish and grain, seaweed, cultured algae, yeast products, artificially flavored meat, and other unusual products. In view of the trend toward vegetarianism and health food, though we don't seem to be eating cultured algae instead of potatoes as yet, Asimov seems to be right.

Future Predictions: For 2000-2099

* There will be a steadily increasing equality among the sexes as the only reasonable and humane way of bringing about a permanent reduction in the birthrate--since women busy helping to run the world will have less time for childbearing.

* There will be a steady increase in the age level of humanity as a whole, as medicine advances, and a growing importance will be placed on adult education to retain the mental vigor and creativity of human beings throughout their life.

* There will be a steady decline in racism, war will become increasingly obsolete, and we will witness the growth and slow acceptance of an effective world government as the only way of dealing with problems that are planetwide in scope.

* There will be a steady intensification of the exploration and exploitation of space, so that space can be the final energy source (solar power stations). Space will become a place where dangerous experimental techniques in the fields of genetics and nuclear physics can be carried on without risking the earth's population; where factories and industrial plants can be located to remove pollution from the earth's surface; where observatories can be established to increase human knowledge; where settlements can be established to initiate a new phase of growth in human population and wealth; and where new resources, notably from the moon and the asteroids, can be used for all these activities. Space will also serve as a launching point for new explorations in the direction of the outer solar system and the stars.

A Final Prediction--If, by the year 2000, it is not clear that we are moving, as a planetary population, in the direction of each of the four preceding predictions, then it will be clear that civilization is declining rapidly and, perhaps, irreversibly to extinction through nuclear war, or through the pressures of overpopulation and all its malignant side effects.

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