The future is not that far off, and many professional forecasters in Washington

make a living out of predicting the kind of world we might inhabit 10, 20 or 30
years down the road.
These reports are put together by a committee of dozens of experts, each contrib
uting their best-case (or worst-case) scenarios in politics, society, technology
, science and the environment. Governments and companies often use such reports
to make decisions about where to invest money, station troops, open factories an
d how to train future workers. But now thinkers believe that sketching out ficti
onal futures may do more to stimulate people to prepare for the future than mult
i-chapter white papers with hundreds of footnotes.
Two recent studies
the National Intelligence Council's "Global Trends: Paradox o
f Progress" and the Atlantic Council's "Global Risks 2035: The Search for the Ne
w Normal"
both look at the year 2035.