Numbers, Facts and Trends Shaping Your World
The next two sections of this report include hundreds of additional comments from experts, organized under the six most common themes in these experts’ responses. The remarks of many of the experts already quoted in the earlier pages of this report also tie into these themes. This section covers the three themes that emerged among […]
The following respondents wrote contributions that consider a wide range of issues tied to the future of human agency. Henning Schulzrinne, Internet Hall of Fame member and co-chair of the Internet Technical Committee of the IEEE, said, “Agency and recourse are privileges now and they are likely to become more so. By 2035, automated decision-making […]
We are heading for a shift to significant control by AI systems that subordinate human agency to increasingly aware AI David Barnhizer, a professor of law emeritus and author of “Human Rights as a Strategic System,” wrote, “Various futurists project that AI systems will or already are developing an internal version of what I think […]
The following selection of responses covers some of the more panoramic and incisive big ideas shared by several dozen of the 862 thought leaders participating in this canvassing. This is the fork in the road where people can choose a better future – or a downward path Mark Davis, associate professor of media and communications […]
A large portion of respondents hoped and predicted that digital platforms will reform themselves and new platforms will arise by 2035 that could lead to a better online environment – one that enshrines new norms for discourse and allows for open and honest conversations that are less fractious and menacing. Among the reforms they imagine: […]
Early developments in AI have been of overwhelmingly great importance and value to society. Most of the experts responding to this canvassing – both the pessimists and the optimists – expect that it will continue to provide clear benefits to humanity. Those who are hopeful argue that its advance will naturally include mitigating activities, noting […]
The religious composition of the global population is always in flux. For example, the share of Buddhists worldwide is shrinking because of their low average fertility rate, and Christians are declining in the U.S. and Western Europe as more people leave organized religion. Demographers attribute changes in the size of religious populations to three main […]
The findings in this report are based on the analysis of two main sources of data: 1) a content analysis of the news coverage of the first 60 days of the Biden administration, and 2) a nationally representative survey of U.S. adults conducted between March 8 to March 14, 2021. Below are the details of […]