THE MILLENNIUM PROJECT;

 
Appearing during the middle two hours of Thursday's show, Director of the Millennium Project, Jerome Glenn, discussed their annual 'State of the Future' reports which outline the challenges we face as a planet that is juggling technology, population, and the delicate balance of nature. The Millennium Project, a global independent think tank, has 49 different "nodes" around the world. The nodes, he explained, are networks comprised of people from government, corporations and business, and universities who "identify the best brains they can get their hands on to answer global questions," like how do we get enough water for the world.

Glenn noted there is some reason for optimism, as there's been major progress in a lot of the world's most serious problems, such as improved education, reduction of poverty and infant mortality, wars and HIV trending down, Internet use and GDP going up, and nuclear proliferation leveling off. However, he noted that we're losing on debt, unemployment, income equality, and most of the environmental indicators. As manufacturing and service jobs disappear, Glenn posited that technology may enable new kinds of markets for individuals, such as a person in Egypt wearing Google Glass going on a tour of the pyramids that their client can direct. He also announced an offshoot of the Millennium Project, the Global Futures System, which allows people from around the world to participate in problem solving.

Technology Issues:

In the first hour, technology expert Lauren Weinstein talked about how Paypal is testing mobile payments using face verification. What Paypal is trying to do is add a layer of anti-fraud protection, when people want to use Paypal on their cell phone to pay for merchandise. The way it works is that a merchant will see a profile photo of the person on their Paypal account from their computer, and then be able to match it to the person, he explained. Weinstein also commented on various other technology and privacy issues in the news.