October 1998

October 5, 1998

Emerging structure of sin: online gambling

While the US government has begun cracking down on porn rings, another structure of sin is growing by leaps and bounds on the Internet: gambling. The US Senate voted in July to outlaw online gambling, so companies have established gambling sites offshore. European legislators are taking the slow approach, not convinced that new laws are needed. Market analysts predict Internet gambling businesses could be worth US $10 billion by AD 2002.

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October 5, 1998

Wildcards: extreme possibilities and how to plan for them

The art of futurism is about planning for the future, often through the use of scenarios. Futurists usually develop 4 scenarios (a quadrant) which are each very different and yet share certain characteristics. Plans can be made based on the common characteristics, and then trends are monitored to see which of the 4 quadrants is coming to pass. Plans can then be modified to fit the developing scenario. A wildcard, on the other hand, is by nature an unpredictable event. Catastrophes are disasters because we are unprepared for them; we didn’t see them coming. Here we present a scan of [...]

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October 1, 1998

Vulnerabilities and Opportunities

In this column we continue our regular series discussing the short-term vulnerabilities and opportunities which the church faces—possibilities that shape our future. A new book, 1998 State of the Future: issues and opportunities, produced by the American Council for the United Nations University and the Millennium Project, lists 15 issues and 15 opportunities which will affect the world through the short-term future. This list has direct bearing on our ‘scatter vision’ system of monitoring. We will begin adding this to our ‘vulnerability issues’ which we regularly scan for. Here is the list along with our commentary on church vulnerabilities in [...]

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