Dictionary of the Future: The Words, Terms and Trends That Define the Way We'll Live, Work and Talk

Having been enlightened by Faith Popcorn's past books, I immediately was attracted to a book called Dictionary of the Future. What could possibly be in it?

What I found was a pleasant surprise. Ms. Popcorn and Mr. Hanft (and their talented colleagues) have provided a valuable "speak preview" of existing concepts that seem to be catching on, new learning that is developing in scientific and technical fields, demographic imperatives (aging Baby Boomers and the spoiling of vast numbers of only children), and potential issues that could well emerge from existing trends. While no one would argue that all of these words, concepts, terms, and phrases will become mainstream, this book gives you a way to understand them long before they earn their way into a standard dictionary. Having seen how helpful this dictionary was to me, I hope that the authors will revise and update it from time to time, as occurs with more traditional, backwards-looking dictionaries.

The topics quickly expand into pages of specific listings. Here are some of the major topics: aging; art; biology and biotechnology; children and families; computers; corporate America; crime and terrorism; demographics; education; environment; fashions and style; fear and frustration; new figures of speech; food; government and politics; health and medicine; Internet; marketing and consumer experiences; new behaviors; new jobs; personal finance; religion; technology; and telecommunications. The authors encourage you to read the book from front to back (which I did), but also indicate that you can skip around. I think more people will enjoy the latter. Some of these topics just won't be as interesting to you as others are.

About 20 percent of the listings were things I knew about already. These, however, often contained new information. The other 80 percent were either totally or mostly new to me. I felt like I was moving inside a very interesting science fiction book.

Let me give you some examples from the book that particularly interested me.

Ecstatic Architecture and Museum Getting (the new Guggenheim in Bilbao is cited as an example of both)

Genetic Underclass (for those who have genetic disadvantages that they cannot afford to correct)

Free-Range Children (allowed to lead reasonably unstructured lives)

National Parent Permits (you need one to become a parent)

Affective Computing (helps improve your emotional state by monitoring and stimulating you)

Ego Auditor (to help executives keep their perspective)

Prisoncams (to spot those who can become successful entertainment performers when released)

Cultural Abuse (eliminating an aboriginal culture, for example)

Teacher History (so parents can understand a teacher's track record)

Low-Emission Farming

Pharmaceutical Pollution

Batbelt (to carry all of your electronic devices)

Pastural Poultry (allowed to run wild)

Waki (armpit art)

Posterity Anxiety

Eternity Leave (time off from work to be with someone who is dying)

Cubicle Fever

God-Forbid Room (where you can hole up when kidnappers or terrorists show up)

Restorative Justice (helping to make amends for what you did wrong)

Heart Pollution

Happiness Set Point (your normal level of happiness, like your normal weight level)

Toxic Bouquets (flower shop roses from California often are loaded with poisons)

Subscription Restaurants (where top chefs are imported for one night events with special meals)

Wristicuffs (fighting it out with e-mail)

Infidelity Credits (the right to cheat, negotiated and conducted with full disclosure)

Outdoor Concierge

Chief Seed Officer (executive who runs the venture capital investments for a company)

Entrepreneur Channel

Faith-Based Business

Kitesurfing (windsurfing while flying a kite)

Personal Jammers (to keep cookies from telling marketers where you are and what you are doing)

SHUV (SUV caused accident)

Some of what the book talks about may not thrill you. The book conjures up a world in which it will be hard to avoid advertising (bandwidth, hotel floors, and the bottoms of golf holes will have branded messages on them), but we will really want to do so. Some of the concepts may gross you out for other reasons, such as (...).

Other concepts and terms may stimulate some useful thinking. You might want to live in a Yogurt City when you retire where there is an active set of people pursuing a broad range of interests, rather than a retirement community.

Like all books about the future, this one will be of most value if you use it to create a better future. Good luck!