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Each year since 1985, the editors of THE FUTURIST have selected the most thought-provoking ideas and forecasts appearing in the magazine to go into our annual Outlook report. Over the years, Outlook has spotlighted the emergence of such epochal developments as the Internet, virtual reality, and the end of the Cold War.

Here are the editors' top 10 forecasts from Outlook 2008:

1. The world will have a billion millionaires by 2025.

2. Fashion will go wired as technologies and tastes converge to revolutionize the textile industry.

3. The threat of another cold war with China, Russia, or both could replace terrorism as the chief foreign-policy concern of the United States.

4. Counterfeiting of currency will proliferate, driving the move toward a cashless society.

5. The earth is on the verge of a significant extinction event.

6. Water will be in the twenty-first century what oil was in the twentieth century.

7. World population by 2050 may grow larger than previously expected, due in part to healthier, longer-living people.

8. The number of Africans imperiled by floods will grow 70-fold by 2080.

9. Rising prices for natural resources could lead to a full-scale rush to develop the Arctic.

10. More decisions will be made by nonhuman entities.

All of these forecasts plus dozens more were included in the report that scanned the best writing and research from THE FUTURIST magazine over the course of the previous year. The Society hopes this report, covering developments in business and economics, demography, energy, the environment, health and medicine, resources, society and values, and technology, will assist its readers in preparing for the challenges and opportunities in 2008 and beyond.

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08.01.2008