It would be naïve to say that the times we are going through are not as bad as they seem. Millions are hurting, many are hurting badly. The global financial crisis is a tragedy of uncommon proportion. But the fact is, things will not be as bad as they now seem. I’m not being optimistic, I’m being realistic. As I watch my own savings depleted by the slumped stock market, and my own business slammed by loss of clients and contracts, I have to somehow remember that I am a professional futurist, and in that role I don’t have the luxury of wallowing in my own troubles. I have to look out over the horizon, and see what comes next. And what comes next is pretty amazing.

         

Those who gaze at big-box stores and fail to see future cathedrals, museums or artists’ communities have no sense of history. Or imagination.

It is beyond time to start thinking creatively about what to do with all of those big boxes becoming unsuited to their original function long before they physically wear out. Here are some brilliant ideas from a small team of artists, architects, engineers and developers assembled for the purpose. The result? Everything from truck farms to fabulous apartments to, um, kitty-litter boxes for 10-story tall intergalactic cats (Refer to the artist’s rendering above. -Ed).

         

In early October, a small asteroid, about the size of a VW bug, impacted Earth coming in over Sudan. It was very special. This sort of event happens every several months on average, so just why was this one of particular note?

Because it was spotted headed our way less than 24 hours prior to impact by the guys (and presumably gals?) at the Catalina Sky Survey in Arizona — and then subsequently by many other asteroid trackers around the world. The sum of all this intense telescopic tracking was the first ever predicted Near-Earth Object (or NEO) impact time, impact location and estimated energy. All of which came true — to the extent that it has been check-able.

Now this was of particular interest to a group of us who have been putting together a detailed report for consideration by the United Nations regarding a decision-making process which needs to be coordinated within the international community if we are ever to respond in a timely way to threatened NEO impact.

         

It’s Green Week here at NBC Universal, and How You Can Save The World is always thinking about the environment. That’s because our planet plays a big role in how we are — and should be — shaping the way we think, act and react to the political and technological challenges that sometimes make it hard to be green. That’s why it’s important to stay informed, and explore how you feel about energy, science, nutrition and more — and how it all plugs back into our planet.

Catch up on our evolving dialogue about a more environmentally-minded future by clicking on the headlines below.

• Tomorrow matters, as much as today, by Jamais Cascio

• Change the food system, and you change the world, by Denise Caruso

• Why your personal carbon footprint matters, by Siel

• Is your cheeseburger causing global warming? by Jamais Cascio

• We ignored our looming energy crisis for far too long, by Lee Schipper

• A case for vegetarianism, without the guilt trip, by Brian Sager

• The Earth will be just fine, thank you, by Jamais Cascio

• Nature’s Wrath: Who stands to lose the most? by John Podesta

• Do we no longer believe in a better tomorrow? by Peter Schwartz

• The dangers of a politicized scientific community, by Neal Lane

• Opening up new horizons for solar energy, by John M. Deutch

• Down the rabbit, er, prairie dog hole , by Anton Yelchin

         

I remember the excitement and hope that accompanied JFK into the White House. This is the first time in half a century that I sense the same excitement. When I look at the racial situation in the US during the Kennedy era and now see Obama as president, it gives me pride in our country’s ability to change. JFK had trouble achieving many of his goals, and Obama is far more constrained by external circumstances; but let’s hope he can move us to address some of the many serious problems we now face.

On a more parochial note, I await anxiously Obama’s decisions on the future of our country’s space exploration program, which for the first time was addressed by both candidates in this election.

We asked the contributors here at How You Can Save The World to weigh in on President-elect Barack Obama’s victory. Continue reading to find out how they responded.

         

Right now, I am in Basel, Switzerland, keynoting the Swiss Innovation Forum, so I have witnessed firsthand the European reaction to Obama’s victory. The European response has been ecstatic. People spontaneously organized many election parties to watch the election returns as they came in. Time and again, people have expressed warm feelings and affection for America, and hope that a new era of cooperation and friendship will begin across the Atlantic.

But personally, I know that rough days are ahead for Obama, since the huge black hole in the economy will suck up so much needed money that Obama’s options will be limited for the first few years. But eventually, I hope that we can make progress in several areas, such as attacking global warming, funding stem cell research, funding alternative energy sources, etc. For too long, science has been held hostage to ideology. Science is the engine of prosperity, but often science has suffered at the hands of people who wished to promote an agenda based on ideology.

We asked the contributors here at How You Can Save The World to weigh in on President-elect Barack Obama’s victory. Continue reading to find out how they responded.

         

Barack Obama’s election is the single most historic moment I have personally lived through. It’s not just a historic American moment — it seems like most of the planet is cheering at America now. Seeing how much of a personal stake so many people around the world on every continent feel that they have in our presidential election, and hearing the cheers echo around every time zone, the election will perhaps be looked back upon as the single moment of the start of the real 21st century in which we find that, as we face so many global-scale and networked problems, we truly are all in it together.

We asked the contributors here at How You Can Save The World to weigh in on President-elect Barack Obama’s victory. Continue reading to find out how they responded.

         

The election is upon us, and we all look forward to it being over. Both presidential candidates have stated their positions with regard to science, e.g., in response to Science Debate 2008, not always with equal clarity.

Many thoughtful individuals and organizations have offered their advice to the incoming president and posted specific proposals for early action, including the immediate appointment of the President’s Science Advisor (naming him or her Assistant to the President for Science and Technology, thus reporting directly to the President). Indeed there is urgency in making this appointment, since the Science Advisor will be critically important in helping the President select and recruit a large number of presidential appointments as agency heads and for other vital roles. But, the list of things that need to be done right away is long, most of them the result of failed policies of the outgoing administration.

The new president will be under enormous pressure to focus his time, energy and political chits on the immediate crises and “put on hold” serious attention to important strategic issues that will affect the country decades into the future.

         

How can you save the world? Play more games.

Not just any game will work. You’ll need to focus your gameplay efforts carefully, on games like Left 4 Dead, Rock Band, World of Warcraft, Little Big Planet, SF0, Halo 3, Groundcrew and my current game — Superstruct. All of these games are masterfully designed to provoke intense coordination, collaboration, and cooperation - and that’s why they’re all slowly teaching us how game players can one day save the world together. In fact, I’m convinced that either a game developer or a community of online gamers will be nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize by the year 2032.

Why am I so confident that gamers can save the world? It all boils down to this: Online gamers — even the most competitive gamers — are the most collaborative and cooperative people on Earth.

         

Conventional wisdom says that foreign policy does not determine the winner in US Presidential elections. Particularly not when domestic economic anxieties are high — and that kind of anxiety has probably never been higher in several generations.

Still — could it be different this time? Should it be? Remember, when we get to the ‘other side’ of the acute phase of the crisis, the US will be facing a world with foreign policy challenges that go way beyond insolvent banks.

Both candidates have spoken in the debates and in their stump speeches as if foreign policy issues matter a great deal in this campaign. Each argues for a significant change in the nature of America’s presence in the world. Of course McCain and Obama have distinctly different visions of the right direction for that change, and equally different theories of foreign policy leadership. But we fear that neither will state openly just how hard it will be for their leadership propositions to attract followers among the other nations that make up world politics.