Project Coordinator

CRISTINA NISTOR

Student
MELNIC MARIA GABRIELA

2013

DESIGNING THE FUTURE

People have always been intrigued of what the future will look like. Predicting the future is important for two reasons; first, we need to start thinking about what kind of future we would like for ourselves and to pass on to the next generation, and then, we need to know what decisions we need to make today that will give the best result in the future. It might be possible in the future to experience the sand between your toes, feel the salt from the ocean on your lips, hear the waves and smell the seaweed, just lying in your bed at home. But we will not be able to fool the mind in the way that no matter how real the experience will feel, you will always know that it hasnt happened for real. That will make all the difference. You can tell people today that you have seen the pyramids in Egypt because you have seen a picture of them, but you will never get the feeling of being there. So, even if a great invention is there for an affordable price, it will never replace the common experience if it is not genuine.

The future has always been a topic that gave free rein to the imagination. This time UN forecasts on how the world will look like in the year 2100 are not too optimistic, because the Earth will no longer dispose of some of its main resources, such as oil, natural gas or coal. The United Nations predicted that the Earth's population will reach about 10 billion inhabitants in the year 2100, according to Business Insider. Everything until then, 80% of the world's population will live in cities. Mega-cities, which will have more than 20 million inhabitants, will become common. Of these, the following are worth mentioning: Beijing, Delhi, Jakarta, Mexico City, Mumbai, So Paulo and Shanghai. Now, there are over 7,000 spoken languages, and in the future, many of them will disappear, while English will become the most used means of communication. Africa's population will grow from 1 billion as in 2010, up to 3.6 billion in 2100. Life expectancy worldwide will reach 81 years, 68 as it is present, and 22.3% of the population will be at least 65 years old. Resources such as oil, natural gas and coal will get close to zero. These energy sources are going to be extinct, mostly due to the rate of consumption. The exploitation of renewable energies (wind and solar energy in particular) will increase and they will become major sources in 2100.

People spend more time in their homes than in any other space. The home ideally provides a safe, comfortable environment in which to relax, communicate, learn, and be entertained. Increasingly, it is where people connect with friends and family, conduct business, manage resources, learn about the world, and maintain health and autonomy as they age. People invest extraordinary amounts of time, money, and emotional energy to mold their homes into living spaces that meet their needs.

Wood feels good, smells good, can look better with age, and has a lot going for it from the green point of view. It is sustainable (as long as it is harvested responsibly), healthful (it doesn't outgas toxins), and relatively durable (if maintained). Compared with other commonly used siding materials, it requires the least energy to produce and involves the least total embodied energy over its lifetime. On top of that, wood potentially has the lowest environmental impact. When a house has come to the end of its useful life, the wood components may live on in another structure the cradle-to-cradle scenario, as when oak barn beams live on capably in a second or even a third building. If we are to believe most movies, television, and popular press articles that mention home life in the future, we will have complete control over our spaces at the touch of a button. In fact, our homes will be so fully automated and smart that we will rarely have to think about everyday tasks at all. We will spend nearly all our time in the home engaged in leisure activities because digital and robotic agents will have taken over the mundane chores of day-to-day life.

In the future, homes and buildings will look differently, they will be suspended, and the cars will fly and will not have wheels. The cars will not pollute the air. The cities are going to be large, but unfortunately it will be no more lakes and forests. The cities will be equipped with appliances which refreshes the air. There will be cities-resorts where they will be forests, springs and lakes. The seasons will differ very little from each other.

Some very exciting developments are underway in the realm of hydroponic agriculture, i.e. the growing of crops in fertilized water without the use of soil. Grown in ultra clean, climate regulated environments inside warehouses or skyscrapers, crops could be spared both natural contamination (insects, infections etc) an d pesticides, to make them entirely clean, even more so than organic crops. Plants could be easily monitored for defects inside 30 story greenhouse that recycle all their air and water. It would also be possible to genetically enhance fruits, vegetables and even meat to have higher nutritional values with, for instance, less fat and more protein, by changing the DNA makeup.

In vitro meat, in vitro fish, in vitro fowl. Science is all over it, and predictors say it will eventually sell for half the price of the real animal product. In vitro meat will taste and feel entirely genuine, and farms that raise, for instance, live stock will find profitability an elusive dream in competition with modern sky farms. In vitro meat can be grown in urban multistory greenhouses. 20 years from now, I see urban dwellers buying fresh meat, fruits and vegetables from their neighborhood farm scraper, all devoid of infections, saturated fat and chemicals.

Molecular gastronomy (also referred to as "progressive cuisine") uses avant-garde cooking techniques and equipment to transform flavors and presentations. Examples include deconstructions, foams and "caviars" composed of reductions that have been converted via calcium baths into textural dollops with tapioca-like consistency. People are usually reassured by the chefs proclamation. Otherwise, before savoring the fake caviar made from sodium alginates, the burning sherbet, the artichoke foam delight in a siphon and the inverted Baked Alaska hot inside and cold outside, to understand the beauty of the new colloids in a complex disperse system and drink organized water, we would have been pressured to enroll for a semester of chemistry.

What shape the school of the future will take is amorphous, but most educators and observers agree that the future school will go electronic with a capital E. Students, The Age asserts, will see and hear teachers on computers, with "remote learning" the trend of tomorrow. Accessing "classrooms" on their home computers, students will learn at times most convenient for them. Yet some attendance at an actual school will be required to help students develop appropriate social skills. That is why: - all teachers and students have laptop computers. - teachers check voicemail and return students' calls on a special telephone system. - students use telephones to find information or speak to experts in subject areas they are studying. - all lessons are multidisciplinary. - all students have individual learning plans created by teachers. In schools, a laptop computer is the students' "library, homework, data storage, and connection to the wider world. (Technology) has changed the emphasis to the learning of kids rather than the teaching of kids."

21st Century Schools recognizes the critical need for developing 21st century skills. However, we believe that authentic education addresses the whole child, the whole person, and does not limit our professional development and curriculum design to workplace readiness. 21st century skills learned through our curriculum, which is interdisciplinary, integrated, project-based, and more, include and are learned within a project-based curriculum by utilizing the seven survival skills advocated by Tony Wagner in his book, The Global Achievement Gap: Critical Thinking and Problem Solving Collaboration across Networks and Leading by Influence Agility and Adaptability Initiative and Entrepreneurialism

Effective Oral and Written Communication Accessing and Analyzing Information Curiosity and Imagination

In much the same way that traveling at speeds close to the speed of light can alter the flow of time, intense gravitational fields can have the same effect. Gravity effectively is a warping of space-time, and therefore affects not only space, but time as well. The result is that time passes more slowly for an observer as they enter a massive object's gravitational well. Astronauts, traveling on the space shuttle or International Space Station experience a combination of these effects, though on a smaller scale. Since they are traveling quite quickly and orbiting around Earth (a massive body with significant gravity), time slows down for them compared to those back on Earth.

The difference is small, much less than a second over the course of their time in space. But it is a measurable difference nonetheless. We have seen how we can slow the passage of time for human passengers traveling near the speed of light and near intense gravitational wells. But these effects are small. Until we can figure out a way to approach the speed of light (and warp drive does not count, not that we know how to do that either at this point), or travel near black holes (or travel to black holes for that matter) without falling in, we won't be able to experience time travel any significant distance into the future.

The utopia and its offshoot, the dystopia, are genres of literature that explore social and political structures. Utopian fiction is the creation of an ideal society, or utopia, as the setting for a novel. Dystopian fiction is the opposite: creation of an utterly horrible or degraded society, or dystopia. Many novels combine both, often as a metaphor for the different directions humanity can take in its choices, ending up with one of two possible futures. Both utopias and dystopias are commonly found in science fiction and other speculative fiction genres, and arguably are by definition a type of speculative fiction. Concepts of utopia and dystopia represent imaginary societies in which people live their life either in a perfect environment, governed by the laws that provide happiness to everyone, or in an oppressive society that is ruled by repressive and controlled state. Envisioned as an alternative to the utopia, dystopia represents a vision of a fictional society that is made imperfect and flawed by the influences of tyranny, terrorism, poverty, misery and advanced technologies.

Utopia Vs. Dystopia

Utopia Society View on future Form of government Education Economy Legislation Equality of all people Optimistic, upbeat Democracy Equal and advancing education Dystopia Classes, caste system Pessimistic, downbeat Regime Propaganda

No money, equal distribution of goods

Fair system of punishment

Rich and poor people, no middle class

Unfair and excessive punishment

Atmosphere

Happy, harmonic families

Unfortunate, unlucky people

Globalization is perhaps the most significant and pervasive contemporary trend. Humanity is moving from a set of relatively autonomous nation states to an integrated global reality, more ruled by international corporations and organizations, and economic and ecological interdependencies, than national and political ideologies and issues. Fueled by global communication, technological networking, expanding transportation systems, economic exchange and competition, and the growth and spread of a global culture, globalization is seen both as a positive and as a negative trend. When we ask for opinions about what future humans might look like, we typically get one of two answers. Some people trot out the old science-fiction vision of a big-brained human with a high forehead and higher intellect. Others say humans are no longer evolving physicallythat technology has put an end to the brutal logic of natural selection and that evolution is now purely cultural.

- Diamond, Jared, Collapse: How Societies Choose to Succeed or Fail, Cambridge University Press, 2005, page 197-198 - Booker, M. Keith. The Dystopian Impulse in Modern Literature. Westport, CT, Greenwood Press, 1994. - Sargent, Lyman Tower, Themes in Utopian Fiction in English before Wells. Science Fiction Studies, Vol.10, No. 3, pt. 3 (November 1976: pp. 275-82) - Booker, M. Keith. Dystopian Literature: A Theory and Research Guide. Westport, CT, Greenwood Press, 1994. - Moore, Alan; David Lloyd (November 2005). V for Vendetta. Vertigo. pp. Inside Cover.ISBN14012-0792-8.

- http://www.ziare.com/international/onu/cum-va-fi-lumea-in-anul-2100raport-onu-12 05619 - http://www.newsoffuture.com/about_the_future.html - http://www.mediafax.ro/stiinta-sanatate/vezi-cum-arata-orasul-viitoruluicare-ar-putea-face-fata-oricaror-dezastre-8029070 - http://savior.hubpages.com/hub/8-Common-Characteristics-of-theHuman-Society-in-Year-20208 Common Characteristics of the Human Society in Year 2020 - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Future_of_Food - http://www.ilookforwardto.com/2011/02/food-in-the-future-cleanercheaper-and-healthier.html - http://econfuture.wordpress.com/2009/10/23/how-will-technologyaffect-society-in-the-future/ - http://econfuture.wordpress.com/2009/10/23/how-will-technologyaffect-society-in-the-future/ - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Hunger_Games

- Article by Sharon Cromwell, Education World, Copyright 1998 Education World in http://www.educationworld.com/a_curr/curr046.shtml - The Future of Networking Technologies for Learning in http://www.ed.gov/Technology/Futures/toc.html - The Future of the Web, Intelligent Devices, and Education in Educom Review, Volume 34 Number 4 1999 apud http://www.educause.edu/ir/library/html/erm9944.html - Wagner, Tony, The Global Achievement Gap, First Trade Paper Edition, 2010 in http://www.amazon.com/Global-Achievement-Gap-SurvivalNeed/dp/0465002307 - Future Perspective in http://www.thejournal.com/magazine/vault/A2598.cfm - The School of the Future in StudyMode.com. in http://www.studymode.com/essays/The-School-Of-The-Future721311.html - http://www.educationworld.com/a_curr/curr046.shtml - http://space.about.com/od/frequentlyaskedquestions/a/Time-Travel.htm - http://www.gayot.com/blog/molecular-gastronomy-future-food/ - http://futuredesigns.sphericalstructures.com/