Tomorrow S Universities

Essays investigating and sparking new questions in experimental music

In this book the authors present a unique synthesis of materials that evolved from the World Conference on Innovative Higher Education, which brought together the heads of universities from over thirty countries, along with other prominent men and women concerned with higher education, to share information on education innovation and change. Much more than simply a conference report, the book addresses the fundamental issues of change in higher education and how change works and where it is leading and looks at the ways in which innovations meet changing needs.

"This book is a forecast." Over the next three decades, the aging populations in America, Europe, and Japan will begin to threaten our way of life. The ever-increasing pool of retirees will burden relatively diminished workforces, slowing the pace of growth and straining public and private finances. In stark contrast, the emerging economies---India, Brazil, and China prominent among them---enjoy the benefits of large, youthful, and eager workforces, and will do so for years to come. As seasoned economist Milton Ezrati argues, these demographic differences will set the economic and financial tone for the next three decades or more. But the author argues the future is nonetheless brighter than the media forecasting will have you believe. We can survive---and even thrive---in the face of challenges that force radical change on our workforce. America has the capacity to lead the globe in making needed reforms, including increasing the participation of women in the workplace, creating generally longer working lives, changing what and how economies produce, and much more. Ezrati's book will be a game changer for investors, owners of businesses both big and small, and for anyone else interested in prediction of what the future holds.

Why are mental developments during childhood so important to children's futures?' 'The leading premise of this book is that children's early life experiences forever shape their ability to learn, think, and conduct their adult lives.' 'International tests consistently disgrace the schooling and achievement of U.S. students. The public is either unaware of the disaster or hasn't taken it seriously, even though it's equivalent to the catastrophes of Pearl Harbor and 9/11 . . .' According to: Wayne H. Holtzman, PhD, Dean, College of Education (retired), President, Hogg Foundation for Mental Health (retired), The University of Texas at Austin: '(Al's) keen insight into the emotional socialization, learning, and creative thinking of a developing child in our ever-more complex world is indeed impressive. Any parent or teacher could profit from a careful reading of this thought-provoking book.' * * * * * * * * Albert Yee (EdD, 1965, Stanford) has served as a distinguished classroom teacher for seven years in California and 30 years as professor of psychology and education and academic dean in America and East Asia. For his outstanding service and original research and publications, he has been elected a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, American Psychological Association, American Psychological Society, and Society for the Psychological Study of Social Issues. Al is proud of his children's success and having raised them. His daughter is a surgery professor, specializing in breast cancer, and his son is a State Dept. Foreign Service Officer, whose recent posts have been consul general in Greece and Director, Provisional Reconstruction Teams, in Afghanistan.

What would today’s technology look like with Victorian-era design and materials? That’s the world steampunk envisions: a mad-inventor collection of 21st century-inspired contraptions powered by steam and driven by gears. In this book, futurist Brian David Johnson and cultural historian James Carrott explore steampunk, a cultural movement that’s captivated thousands of artists, designers, makers, hackers, and writers throughout the world. Just like today, the late 19th century was an age of rapid technological change, and writers such as Jules Verne and H.G. Wells commented on their time with fantastic stories that jumpstarted science fiction. Through interviews with experts such as William Gibson, Cory Doctorow, Bruce Sterling, James Gleick, and Margaret Atwood, this book looks into steampunk’s vision of old-world craftsmen making beautiful hand-tooled gadgets, and what it says about our age of disposable technology. Steampunk is everywhere—as gadget prototypes at Maker Faire, novels and comic books, paintings and photography, sculptures, fashion design, and music. Discover how this elaborate view of a history that never existed can help us reimagine our future.

A fascinating look at near-future advances, inventions, products, services, and everyday conveniences that will change how we live and work. Marvin Cetron and Owen Davies explore these changes and the impact they will have on everyday life. For example, by the year 2010: -Personal computers will offer the power of today's supermachines and artificial intelligence. -A telecommunications network will supply the world with services from the contents of the Library of Congress to pornographic videos in Cantonese. -The United States-reversing a decades-old trend-will link its major cities with hig-speed railroads. -Airplanes will be capable of leaping halfway around the world in just two hours. -Consumer goods will be produced at prices so low the poor of tomorrow could live as well as the rich of today. -Scientists will have learned to purge the air of pollution, closing up the Antarctic ozone hole and ending the threat of global warming. -Heavy industries can move into space, so that Earth can recover from our past environmental follies. -Dramatic advances in gene mapping and organ transplants will extend the healthy human life span well beyond the century mark. Science and technology have dominated life in developed countries since the Industrial Revolution. In the twenty-first century, the will change it almost beyond recognition. Probable Tomorrows tells us how.

From Jules Verne to the Jetsons, from a 500-passenger flying wing to an anti-aircraft flying buzz-saw, the vision of the future as seen through the eyes of the past demonstrates the play of the American imagination on the canvas of the future.