Some folks believe that peering into a crystal ball can predict the future. Others believe in the power of divination or fortune telling. While the methods differ, the question is usually the same. What does the future have in store?
Marty Lasden and co-producer, lawyer/author Eric Berkowitz, try to distinguish the prophets from the crackpots as they consider everything from genetic engineering to Judaism to the future of work in the series Up Next: Perspectives on the Future of Everything.
Way back in 1987, when the Internet was still a novelty, Thomas Malone predicted the advent of electronic buying, selling, and outsourcing. Then, just a few years later, he coined the term “E-lancer” to describe the new crop of freelance workers emerging in the information economy. And in 2004, he published a book called The Future of Work. In this edition of Up Next, Malone, who is a professor of management at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, considers how, if at all, workers will be able to survive and thrive in the decades ahead.
In Medieval times, marriage was very different than it is today. Marriages were often based on political arrangements, and women often didn’t get to choose whom they would marry, or even know their future husband beforehand. If love was involved at all, it came after the couple had been married. In this edition of Up Next, leading family studies scholar Stephanie Coontz talks about the changing nature of marriage and how well the institution is likely to fare in the decades ahead.
Browse all of the programs in the series Up Next: Perspectives on the Future of Everything.