By John Chandler I am 54 years old and have wonderful news for people who are roughly my age: all things equal, life gets a lot better, and you are about to get happier. This, according to Brookings Institute senior…
The sunny side of our gray forecast
By John Chandler Since 1840, global human life expectancy at birth has risen about three months with each passing year. A century ago, Americans were expected to live until age 47; now, newborns are pegged for 79 years. If life…
The powers of two
By John Chandler Joshua Wolf Shenk finds in Paul McCartney and John Lennon a master metaphor of how brilliance happens. In his recent book, Power of Two: Finding the Essence of Innovation in Creative Pairs, Shenk makes the case that…
All politics is local? Forget it.
By John Chandler During Singapore’s recent World Cities Summit, National Geographic’s Jeremy Bentham opined on some of the megatrends of ascending urban migration. Noting that the United Nations projects that the world’s population will grow from roughly seven billion today…
The city in 2050
By John Chandler One of the leaders in multi-scenario planning and global forecasting in recent decades has been the Shell Corporation. Their economic interest in doing this well is clear: with a predicted global population of nine billion and increased…
The dark intersection of technology and sexuality
By John Chandler This fall, the Pew Research Center projected that we will see robotic prostitutes by 2025. In the words of University of Tennessee law professor and author Glenn Harlan Reynolds, “Terminator robots won’t stalk the earth massacring humans;…
For what we are about to smoke …
By John Chandler In July, the New York Times posted one of the most noted editorials in its history, calling for the national legalization of marijuana. Using the tired argument of anti-pot laws as akin to Prohibition, it made legitimate…
Humblebragging — a double technical foul
By John Chandler False modesty is as old as humanity itself — see the fate of Haman in the biblical story of Esther. But give credit to comedian Harris Wittels, writer for the NBC series Parks and Recreation, whose Twitter…
What our languages are telling us, part 2
By John Chandler Last column, I wrote about global trends in spoken languages. I’d like to follow up with observations from writer David Pegg about which of these languages are waxing and waning in global influence. Ranking by impact rather…