Posted on 04/09/2007 9:22:50 PM PDT by fishhound
ONDON: Information chips implanted in the brain. Electromagnetic pulse weapons. The middle classes becoming revolutionary, taking on the role of Marx's proletariat. The population of countries in the Middle East more than doubling, while Europe's drops as fertility falls. "Flashmobs" - groups rapidly mobilised by gangs or terrorists.
This is the world in 30 years, as envisaged by a British Ministry of Defence team tasked with sketching the likely "future strategic context" for the country's armed forces. It includes an "analysis of the key risks and shocks".
Rear Admiral Chris Parry, head of the ministry's Development, Concepts and Doctrine Centre, which drew up the report, describes the assessments as "probability-based, rather than predictive".
The 90-page report comments on widely discussed issues such as the growing economic importance of India and China, the militarisation of space, and the rise of "internet-enabled citizen journalists" and pressure to release stories "at the expense of facts".
It includes other potential developments - some frightening, some reassuring - that are not so often discussed:
- Weapons will be able to wipe out communications systems in a selected area; neutron weapons will destroy living organs but not buildings; unmanned weapons platforms will enable the "application of lethal force without human intervention".
- An implantable "information chip" could be developed and wired directly to the brain; states, terrorists or criminals could activate flashmobs.
- By 2035, more than 60 per cent of the world's population will be living in urban environments, leading to social deprivation and "new instability risks"; globalisation may bring inter-state warfare to an end but lead to "inter-communal conflict".
- Massive population growth will mean the Middle East and northern Africa will remain highly unstable.
- Tension between the Islamic world and the West will continue, and may increasingly be directed at China, "whose new-found materialism, economic vibrancy and institutionalised atheism will be anathema to orthodox Islam".
- Casualties and damage inflicted by terrorist attacks will remain low compared with other forms of coercion and conflict, but acts of extreme violence will persist.
- Climate change could lead to a drop in north Atlantic salinity by increasing the freshwater run-off from the Arctic. This could affect the natural circulation of the north Atlantic by diminishing the warming effect of ocean currents on Western Europe.
"Massive population growth will mean the Middle East and northern Africa will remain highly unstable."
Nah, Europe will take the overflow.
I feel for the people who live in constant fear with no positive outlook in life’s future!
All bull crap. It sells of course.
“I believe in humanity. We are an incredible species. We’re still just a child creature, we’re still being nasty to each other. And all children go through those phases. We’re growing up, we’re moving into adolescence now. When we grow up - man, we’re going to be something!” -Gene Roddenberry
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