Future Predictions of Famous Scientist Daniel Bell

About professor Daniel Bell and some of his predictions about the future of science and technology.

Predictor: DANIEL BELL

Daniel Bell, a sociology professor at Harvard University, heads the Commission on the Year 2000-a group of researchers, government officials, and professors organized by the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. He is the author of The Post-Industrial Society; The End of Ideology; Work and Its Discontents.

Past Predictions: No record.

Future Predictions: For 2000

--Supersonic transport will make the world "smaller."

--The physical environment will still be livable though there will be less privacy and many problems will exist.

--The society of the year 2000 will be more fragile, with greater hostility and polarization.

--The world will generally be in a postindustrial state with:

. A services, rather than a goods, economy.

. Accessible central knowledge used for innovation and policy formation.

. Power residing in intellectual institutions, like universities, rather than in industry.

. Greater individual autonomy.

. A more hedonistic culture distrustful of the achievement-oriented technological world.