This article in the Chronicle of Higher Education presents a good discussion of the state of research into addressing humanity's preparedness for super-intelligent machines.
National Issues Forum publishes pamphlets on topics such as education, energy and
environment, government and politics, and other current issues. Available as class sets,
they present multiple sides of an issue. Many include a moderator's guide and
questions. An example is The New Challenges of Immigration
http://www.nifi.org/stream_document.aspx?rID=13784&catID=13&itemID=13780&typeID=8
* Filmed: August 2006
* Running Time: 17.38
* Description: Nicholas Negroponte discusses his work to provide cheap ($100),
portable, self-charging laptops to developing countries. He talks about how these
laptops can change education and ultimately reduce poverty.
* Rating: Good
* 7-Revolutions Sections: Technology, Information Processing.
* Released 1999
* Running time: 60 minutes
* Produced by Berkeley Media and available through their website
http://www.berkeleymedia.com/
* Educational discounts are available; be sure to ask. A review quoted on their site
says: "This film manages, miraculously, not to fall into the simplistic trap of
equating population growth with abstract numbers that count up doom and
disaster. Rather, it reminds us that this is the most human of all subjects, and its
future depends above all on the human lives of young women, who live in many
different circumstances in many parts of the earth. It depicts these young
women, appropriately, as looking ahead to lives very different from those of
their mothers -- lives at a global turning point toward lower birth rates and
population stabilization." -- Donella Meadows, Prof. of Environmental Studies,
Dartmouth Univ.
Jobs growth was slow in May, renewing pessimism about the U.S. economy. Spence, a Nobel Prize-winning economist writes that economic growth and employment in the United States have started to diverge, increasing income inequality and reducing jobs for less-educated workers.
The CSIS Global Strategy Institute is dedicated to promoting far-sighted thinking about the looming challenges ahead and the strategic solutions necessary to face them.
* Running Time: 3:40
* Description: This is an animated short film about groundwater. It provides
good information, but is also very humorous.
* Rating: Very good
* 7-Revolutioins: Resources, Technology