Modern Scientist Predictions Gordon J. F. MacDonald

About the predictions both right and wrong of modern scientist Gordon J.F. MacDonald including ones about satellite communications and weather control.

Predictor: GORDON J. F. MacDONALD

MacDonald is director of the environmental studies program at Dartmouth College in Hanover, N.H. Formerly, he was a member of the Council of Environmental Quality, consultant to the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, and a professor of geophysics at the University of California at Los Angeles.

Past Predictions: Right--In 1968 MacDonald said that satellites would be used to beam information directly from a news site to anywhere in the world, to make television available in developing countries, and to forecast weather.

Future Predictions: No Dates Given

* With sophisticated satellite communications, many nations will become Peeping Toms, and all will lose their privacy. Through satellite-computer connections, a country could analyze the smoke from another's factory chimneys; estimate the amount of electricity produced by a power plant; and provide data concerning population movements, the number of cars on the highways, housing, and the number of workers in a factory. This will directly affect ideas on government and nationalism.

* A satellite computer system would permit nearly instantaneous transmission of information. For example, the accessibility of financial data banks would change the workings of international trade drastically.

* Satellites could inventory agricultural resources, mineral deposits, fish, and water sources and could help control disasters such as forest fires.

By 2018--Weather will be so controllable that droughts and storms could be used as weapons.