Future Predictions of Famous Scientist Dr. Ithiel de Sola Pool

About Dr. Ithiel de Sola Pool and her predictions about the future of the world in technology, culture, and economy.

Predictor: ITHIEL DE SOLA POOL

A professor of political science at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Pool is the author of several books-Symbols of Democracy; American Business and Public Policy; The People Look at Educational Television; Candidates, Issues, and Strategies.

Past Predictions: No record.

Future Predictions: No Dates Given-Information technology will make possible indices of everything-e.g., public happiness according to race, sex, and age; reports of levels of public knowledge; statistics on traffic delays. Such computerized data systems will raise the issue of invasion of privacy.

--Knowledge of the human brain--cognition, memory, ability to make associations, categorization-will increase. Educational technology will be extremely sophisticated.

--Computers will be built that will be capable of formulating grammatical sentences in answer to verbal questions and of translating from one language into another.

--It will be possible to determine specifically the effects of the family, genetic inheritance, and parental treatment on the individual child.

--People will be even more uninhibited than today and will talk openly about their feelings.

--Nations will regulate their economic condition, making conscious choices concerning growth, consumption, and leisure.

--The economic gap between developed and undeveloped nations will narrow.

--Nationalism will be less important.

--Sophisticated information systems will make it possible for diplomats to experiment on-line with alternate strategies by means of simulation models of international systems.