Anthony J. Wiener, Forecaster of the Future, Is Dead at 81
- Douglas Martin for The New York Times June 26th, 2012
- Source: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/06/27/us/anthony-j-wiener-forecaster-of-the-future-is-dead-at-81.html?_r=2
Einstein said he never thought about the future because it comes soon enough. Anthony J. Wiener thought about it deeply and influentially.
In 1967, Mr. Wiener, a self-described futurist, collaborated with Herman Kahn to write a 431-page book brimming with forecasts for the year 2000. Home computers? Check. Artificial organs and limbs? Check. Pagers and “perhaps even two-way pocket phones?” Why, yes!
But the millennium turned without noiseless helicopters replacing taxis. Artificial moons still do not illuminate huge swaths of the Earth. And are you, too, still waiting for that predicted 13-week vacation?
