Ensuring the future

Can intelligent life overcome a host of self-inflicted problems and flouris h in the next century? This paper explores this question by examining threa ts to the future. Western culture, institutions and decision-making process are seen as anti-future and the strongest hazard to shaping a viable futur e for humanity. The paper offers an imaginative research programme to overc ome this obstacle and discusses the inherent contradictions in the agenda. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.