The central organ for belief in progress and enthusiasm for technology, Wired Magazine from San Francisco, put a focus on the cover of its July issue in 1997 with the headline, “The long boom – we are on the threshold of 25 years of prosperity, freedom and a better environment for the whole world”. In a sidebar, the editors listed “ten spoilsport” who could slow down the scenario of a golden age of progress. Twenty-four years later, this list reads worryingly prophetic, which is why it is currently being shared avidly on social media.
1. Tensions between China and the US are escalating into a new Cold War that is on the verge of a real war.
2. New technologies turn out to be a flop. They bring neither the expected increases in productivity nor the great economic boom.
3. Russia turns into a mafia-like kleptocracy or withdraws into a quasi-communist nationalism that threatens Europe.
4. The European integration process is stalling. Eastern and Western Europe cannot manage their reunification, and even the process within the European Union fails.
5. A major ecological crisis leads to global climate change which, among other things, disrupts the food supply, which leads to sharp price increases and sporadic famine everywhere.
6. The surge in crime and terrorism is forcing the world to withdraw out of fear. People who constantly feel like they are about to be blown up or robbed are in no mood to reach out and open up.
7. The cumulative escalation of pollution is leading to a dramatic increase in cancer incidence that overwhelms the ill-prepared health system.
8. Energy prices are skyrocketing. Shocks in the Middle East cut oil supplies and alternative energy sources are not used.
9. An uncontrollable epidemic – a modern flu epidemic or something similar – spreads like wildfire, killing up to 200 million people.
10. A social and cultural setback brings progress to a standstill. People have to choose to go forward. But it could also be that they don’t …