Special Area

In 2009, the Australian government announced an ambitious project to provide super-fast

fiber-based Internet to 93% of the population; in 2013, it revised the plan to reuse existing copper
wire; in 2025, many Australians still have no (or slow) Internet. First promise big things, then revise
the promise to make them little things, then don’t finish them anyway. This isn’t (we hope) a
description of the World Scholar’s Cup curriculum release process, but a pattern of behavior for
governments all over the world. Discuss with your team: is it better to underpromise and
overdeliver, or vice versa?

​https://www.theregister.com/2020/12/23/australian_national_broadband_network_complete/

Sometimes social distancing is the problem. In 2023, the World Health Organization declared
loneliness a pressing global health threat. Explore how this concern varies around the world, then
discuss with your team: do you agree that there is a “loneliness epidemic”—and, if so, how can it
be treated?

​https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2023/nov/16/who-declares-loneliness-a-g
lobal-public-health-concern
​https://www.sciencealert.com/global-review-finds-loneliness-is-a-common-and-harrowing-is
sue-we-are-overlooking

Some countries have tried tackling the problem with technology—and none more so than Japan.
Explore efforts to “fix” loneliness in Japan and elsewhere, then discuss with your team: are they
the sorts of solutions that more societies should adopt? What technologies would you design to
achieve the same aims?

​https://www.huffpost.com/entry/japan-loneliness-aging-robots-technology_n_5b72873ae4b0
530743cd04aa
​https://www.technologyreview.com/2023/01/09/1065135/japan-automating-eldercare-robots/

During the Covid pandemic, podcasts exploded in popularity. Their hosts (or at least their
subtly-enhanced voices) became many people’s closest friends in a solitary time. Discuss with
your team: are podcasts meaningfully different from old-fashioned radio broadcasts in their impact
on society, and will their impact continue? In other words, how dated will this bullet seem, ten
years from now?)

​https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2021/jun/07/tragic-but-true-have-podcasters-repl
aced-our-real-friends
Speaking of bullets, the man who eventually assassinated American President James Garfield,
Charles Guiteau, was certain they had a close personal connection (which, of course, Garfield
never knew about.) The Internet has driven a surge in these one-sided “parasocial” relationships.
Algorithms on these platforms are designed to boost engagement and view time, even if the
content is harmful or raises false hopes. Explore how social media also affects the health of adults
and seniors, then discuss with your team: who should be held responsible when an algorithm
promotes harmful content? Could you design an algorithm to craft a healthier, happier
society—and would it be successful?

​https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/modern-mentality/201810/is-social-media-making
-you-lonely
​https://hai.stanford.edu/news/psychiatrists-perspective-social-media-algorithms-and-mental-
health
​https://www.harvardmagazine.com/2022/02/right-now-social-media-adult-depression
​https://www.vox.com/the-highlight/24121461/myanmar-genocide-section-230-facebook-inter
net-social-media-moderation

Nostradamus never predicted that people would remember him 500 years later, but his reputation
for accurate prophecies has nonetheless flourished for centuries. Discuss with your team: why do
people want to know their future in advance? Would it benefit them if they did? If someone offered
you the opportunity to read a biography of your life, would you?

Some poets have also taken a swing at predicting the future. Consider the selections below, then
discuss with your team: how seriously were they intended to tell the future? Is poetry (with its often
murky meanings) the perfect vehicle for prophecy?
■​ Horace | “Ode I. 11” (23 BCE)
■​ William Butler Yeats | “The Second Coming” (1919)
■​ Robert Frost | “Fire and Ice” (1920)
■​ Emily Dickinson | “The Future—never spoke” (1921)

Firefighter, astronaut, investment banker—diviner of the future? If you’re thinking about future
careers, consider a career in thinking about the future. Explore the following future-telling
occupations, then discuss with your team: should governments regulate this industry, and, if so,
how?
■​ palmistry | physiognomy | ceromancy | tasseography | cartomancy
■​ fortune teller | oracle | soothsayer | shaman | witch | clairvoyant
■​ Ifá | Jyotish | I Ching | Bazi | Jiaobei | omikuji | Ouija | crystal ball
■​ fortune cookies | horoscopes
Not all fortune tellers are mystics. Michio Kaku is an award-winning theoretical physicist whose
side business is predicting the future in books like Physics of the Future and The Future of
Humanity. Explore some of his predictions, then discuss with your team: which of his predictions
do you find too alarmist? Which ones do you most look forward to?

​https://futurism.com/michio-kaku-prominent-futurist-predictions

While those predicting the future cast their gaze forward to tomorrow and the days after, some
artists cast their gaze (and occasionally their glaze) toward those making the predictions. Review
the following artworks with your team, then discuss with your team: what are they trying to tell us?

​Art
​Caravaggio | The Fortune Teller (c. 1595)
​Georges de la Tour | The Fortune Teller (c. 1630)
​Michael Vrubel | The Fortune Teller (1895)
​Julio Romero de Torres | The Fortune Teller (1922)
​Helena Sofia Schjerfbeck | The Fortune Teller (Woman in a
Yellow Dress) (1926)
​Jose Luis Cuevas | Dreams of Rasputin (1968)
​Music
​Georges Bizet | “Trio des Cartes” (1875)
​Carl Orff | “O Fortuna” (1935)
​Benny Spellman | “Fortune Teller” (1962)
​Al Stewart | “Nostradamus” (1973)
​Suzanne Vega | “Predictions” (1990)
Did you freely choose to read this bullet, or were you always bound to find yourself puzzling over it
at this very moment? Explore the age-old debate between those who believe we have free will and
those who believe we live in a deterministic universe, then discuss with your team: how much
does it matter whether we are making choices for ourselves? Is it possible that some people have
more free will than others? And, if criminals are not really choosing to be criminals, should they still
be punished? Be sure to learn the differences between genetic, biological, and other forms of
determinism.

​Ted Chiang | “What's expected of us” (2005)

​C. Robert Cargill | Excerpts from Sea of Rust (2007)
​Sam Hughes | “I don't know, Timmy, being God Is a big responsibility” (2007)
Not all methods of foretelling the future are rooted in superstition or ritual; some stem from
long-term observations and lived experiences. For example, the Chinese agricultural calendaris
based on centuries observing the weather and the movement of celestial bodies. The result is a
calendar that reliably predicts the movements of the sun and moon, ocean tides, astronomical
events, and the turning of the seasons—one still referenced by farmers today. Research the
following and explore with your team: are there any other reliable not-quite scientific methods of
predicting the future that merit continued study?

​Aztec agricultural calendar

​Mayan cyclical calendars
​zodiac
​solar terms
​computus
​Saros
​Metonic cycle
​Antikythera mechanism
​https://www.scmp.com/yp/discover/lifestyle/article/3205168/chinese-agricultural-calendar-an
cient-people-combined-lunar-and-solar-years-know-when-plant-harvest
​https://www.npr.org/2024/02/12/1198909292/lunar-new-year-chinese-lunisolar-calendar-hist
ory

Take a step back from the broader future to zoom in on small things that can also be recalled to
life with new vitality: musical bands, TV shows, even products once abandoned to museums and
overstock warehouses. (For instance, walk around your school and may spot someone buzzing
about with a film camera.) We’ll investigate them more later in this outline, but, for now, what other
dead or derelict institutions, products, or trends do you think will become popular again in our
lifetimes? Is there a restaurant that you and your family miss that you wish would be revived—and
how much effort would you be willing to put into that revival?