Great Foresight Questions
In Top, STEEPCOP,and Multidisciplinary Categories
Place your foresight resources in alpha order under each category, please.

What burning questions do you have to ask about foresight, in any of the following categories? List them below. Those who think they have answers are also free to list them here. Consider doing an essay on your question, and possible answers to your question.

Question categories on this page:
Top Foresight
Science, Evolution, and Development
Technology (Engineering, Infotech, Sociotech, Cognotech, Biomedtech)
Environment, Energy, and Natural Resources
Economics, Capitalism, Finance, Globalization, and Innovation Infrastructure
Politics, Security, Democracy, Rights, Health Care, and Sustainability Infrastructure
Society (Big): Culture: Society, Ethics, Media, Art, Design, Education, Religion
Society (Med): Org: Mgmt, Org. Innov. & Entrep, Org. Sustainability & Social Responsibility, Org. Dev.
Society (Small): Personal: Family, Relationships, Careers, and Lifestyle
Multidisciplinary
Unclassified

Top Foresight Questions



Science, Evolution, and Development Questions



Technology (Engineering, Infotech, Sociotech, Cognotech, Biomedtech) Questions

Q: How Can We Make Much Safer Cars, and Cut Auto Deaths by 2/3 in the US and Globally?
Idea: The SafeCar
Why can't we buy cars today whose metal frames are built like this stealth fighter (picture left), with sharply angled sides that will push any vehicle that hits them either over or under them? On the edges, such cars could have rounded bumpers, using the same material found in mooring buoys (see picture below) which are lightweight and have long been used to keep very, very heavy floating ships from rubbing into docks. These buoy-bumpers would help the cars bounce off each other at slow speeds, and would save pedestrians and bicyclists in collisions at high speeds. With electromagnetic shocks and external sensors, safecars might even instantly raise or lower on their shocks before they hit the other car, ensuring that head-on collisions rarely occur, but rather "glancing off" the other car. SafeCars like these would prevent the paralyzing of their occupants when bad, intoxicated, uninsured or unlucky drivers smash into them at high speeds. You could wear easy-on-and-off seven point harnesses inside your SafeCar, like drivers of Formula One cars use today. You can sleep safely in a horizontal position in a moving car if you are in a seven point harness, because your hips are belted in by big nylon safetly belts. If you sleep reclining in the passenger seat in a three point harness, like people do in all our unsafe cars today, you can slide right through it when the car crashes.

How many deaths are caused annually by driving todays deathtraps? Driving is the most dangerous thing the average person does every day. Every year 42,000 Americans die on the highways, and roughly one million (one in 300 of us) are injured during auto accidents. 17,000 (close to half) of these deaths are alcohol related (see US Crash and Casualty Stats, DriveandStayAlive.com). The US Department of Transportation estimates the typical driver will have a near automobile accident one to two times per month and will be in a collision of some type every six years. These stats are even worse in the developing world, where roads are poorer and drivers less experienced. 1.3 million people die from auto accidents annually on our planet, and over one million have died every year for many years! If that isn't a sick statistic, I don't know what is.

If we lived on an alternate Earth, one with governments and automakers that cared more about human lives, everyone would have access to affordable Safe Cars, and people who chose not to drive them would pay a steep annual fee to cover all deaths caused in society by driving them.

Cars that drive themselves will be a big step forward in auto safety, but realistically, robocars are probably still 40 years away. Meanwhile, isn't it about time Americans had a super safe and affordable automobile available to them? Safe Cars could have been built back in the 1950's. Think about that. That means that a large percentage of the auto related tragedies we've seen around the world since, tens of millions of deaths and hundreds of millions of maimed people, could have been prevented if we'd had more politicians and designers who knew what was technically and economically possible and who, knowing the possible and desirable future, simply would not give up until affordable SafeCars were available as an option for everyone, and until the true costs of operating unsafe cars (almost all cars today) were priced into them. I'm not saying that all these deaths would have been prevented. There would still be people driving unsafe cars, out of personal freedom and "choice." But for all these years, those who wanted a safe car have never had a similar choice. Society gives us only unsafe options, and for many jobs we need cars to survive. Richard Rhodes calls this structural violence, when your society causes violence to you by its legal, technological, and economic structures, when other less violent structures are also possible, but not available. So what's stopping the SafeCar? What country will make it first, and how do we make them make it? How much would it cost to make a demo car to show how it works? -- John Smart


Environment, Energy, and Natural Resources Questions



Economics, Capitalism, Finance, Globalization, and Innovation Infrastructure Questions



Politics, Security, Democracy, Rights, Health Care, and Sustainability Infrastructure Questions



Society (Big): Culture: Society, Ethics, Media, Art, Design, Education, Religion Questions

Q: How Do We Make America's Overpriced, Underperforming College Education System More Innovative?
Idea: U.S. Business Academy for Entrepreneurs (Robert Kiyosaki).
A federally-supported academy, just like the military academies, that selects students who have a mission to create sustainable businesses which grow the number and quality of well-paying jobs in the U.S. After a competitive entrance process, involving references and interviews for past extracurricular behavior, students would get near-full-ride scholarships. They would also get to compete for a small pool of seed incubator funding on graduation. In return for their tuition scholarship accepted students would make a commitment to high technology, innovation, market share growth, corporate responsibility, and other policies similar to the ones we see in Germany, which has maintained its manufacturing base and global competitiveness, while America has let the corporations dismantle ours. The Entrepeneur's Academy would graduate more entrepreneurs into our society, a critical thing the U.S. needs. Immigrating more high-talent people every year is another way to get more entrepreneurs, and more hard working employeees. For more see We Need Two School Systems, Robert Kyosaki, USA Today 9 Feb 2010.


Society (Med): Org: Mgmt, Org. Innov. & Entrep, Org. Sustainability & Social Resp., Org. Dev. Questions


Society (Small): Personal: Family, Relationships, Careers, and Lifestyle Questions



Multidisciplinary Questions



Unclassified Questions
Put below any questions you have or recommend but can't easily classify above. We will classify them later.



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