The Cure For The Common Cold?
Size Of Brain Linked To Violence
Which Came First: Walking On Two Legs Or Laughing?
Coming Your Way Soon: Life Expectancy Of 400 Years
The Meta-Human
Robotic Humans
The Space Plane
Terraforming
Gatesism

The Cure For The Common Cold?
If you thought Viagra was big drug news, hold onto your hats. The cure for the common cold may have been found and may be available within a year. A new miracle drug has been shown to kill 169 viruses that cause everything from the common cold to viral meningitis. It's called Pleconaril (pronounced plah-CON-ah-rill). Among the other diseases that Pleconaril promises to halt in their tracks are summer influenza, infections that kill newborns, and even polio. Pleconaril is one of a new class of "virus killers" that could eventually cure every form of viral infectious disease. They block viruses from maturing in the human body. Pleconaril is made by ViroPharma Inc. of Philadelphia. In April, ViroPharma will announce the results of large scale human tests on Pleconaril's effect upon viral meningitis. Should the results be favourable, Pleconaril will be approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for almost immediate availability. According to US disease expert, Dr. Jose Romero of Creighton University, "Everyone talks about the cure for the common cold. This IS the cure for the common cold."

Size Of Brain Linked To Violence
Men who are most prone to violence and rage have significant deficiencies in a brain region that enables most people to exercise self-restraint. University of Southern California researchers, headed by Dr. Adrian Raine, claim their findings may force society to rethink how it regards violent crime, blame, punishment, and the scope of free will. The researcher say, "Our previous research had shown that convicted murderers - really violent offenders - have poorer functioning in the brain's prefrontal cortex. Our study demonstrates that a physical abnormality may underlie the poor functioning in these violent, anti-social men." The U.S.C. study was published recently in the ARCHIVES OF GENERAL PSYCHIATRY.

Which Came First: Walking On Two Legs Or Laughing?
A funny thing happened on the road towards being human. Early humans walked on two legs and then they learned to laugh. This is the finding of Dr. Robert Provine, a psychologist at the University of Maryland. According to Dr. Provine, your anatomical structure that lets you stand upright, also allows you to laugh. If you can't walk upright, you can't laugh.

Coming Your Way Soon: Life Expectancy Of 400 Years
Humans will be able to live 400 years and more. Diseases that kill humans will be overcome by medical technology. Age-based illnesses will no longer afflict us because the aging process itself will be controlled. Humans will be able to take genetically engineered drugs that will allow them to maintain any particular age they desire for as long as they wish. For most of us, accidents will be the major cause of death. Eventually a fatal accident will catch up with all of us. (However, perhaps there will be future technologies that will allow us to recombine our scattered cells after a fatal explosion?) The second major cause of death in the future will be suicide. Ironically, accident was the main killer of early humans. So we have gone full circle in this aspect of human evolution. The anti-aging medical technology will consist of drugs that restore key enzymes missing or in much reduced supply from our bodies late in life. An absence of these enzymes causes our cells late in life to be more prone to DNA errors and hence more mutations. As our cells die and are replaced by other cells, late in life our tissues have a higher proportion of error-prone and mutation-prone cells and our bodies don't work as well or look as good as a result. Restoring the enzymes late in life would allow healthy, vigorous cells to replace less less healthy, less vigorous cells. As our tissues fill up with more youthful cells, we can literally grow younger!

The Meta-Human
The bionic human will soon be a reality. All body parts will be replaceable, including the brain. The artificial human brain will probably emerge from Japan where leading research in this field is currently underway. The human brain will be able to directly access data from an artificial brain. Technology will allow the interface of the human being with the machine bringing about a new step in evolution---a new species of life combining the biological and the mechanical.

Robotic Humans
Human-like robots will soon be indistinguishable from biological humans. In a few decades such robots will have every capacity that humans have except being able to biologically reproduce. (Of course, some humans can't reproduce due to illness, injury, etc.) These robots will move like humans, think like humans, create like humans, feel like humans, and so on. Some scientists are now talking about issues of granting such machines human rights. For example, should it be against the law to destroy one of these robots. Is it murder? Do these robots have souls? What is a human anyway? Technology will be pushing the definition.

The Space Plane
It'll be a little too late for the Sydney 2000 Olympics, but it's coming soon. Research and development at NASA, the European Space Agency, and elsewhere in the aerospace industry will produce a commercial aircraft that will allow travelers to fly from Sydney to London or Sydney to New York in 1 to 2 hours. This will revolutionize the tourism industry in Australia and the economy generally.

Terraforming
As humans begin to colonize outer space, they will make livable currently inhospitable planets and moons through the technology of terraforming. Everything from the air quality to the planet's surface temperature can be controlled.

Gatesism
"Greed is good" was the motto of the 80s. "Give it away" may become the motto of the 00s---if you're wealthy enough to afford it. Microsoft magnate, Bill Gates, has greater financial wealth than that of the bottom 120,000,000 of his fellow Americans combined. Too much to spend in one lifetime, Gates is now giving some of his wealth away. He just contributed $250,000,000 to the public education efforts of various US universities. More giveaway projects are underway. This new philanthropy, called "Gatesism", is a luxury only the super-rich can afford.