The Millennium Project Releases State of the Future 20.0—a unique overview of Global Future Issues & Opportunities

15 Global Challenges (briefs, actions, regional issues) to understand change, plus Future Index, governing future AGI, UN 2.0 Foresight, Robots 2050, and more

This 500-page whopper could have the greatest breadth and depth on issues of the future of world in existence today.”

— Jerome C. Glenn, CEO of The Millennium Project.

WASHINGTON, DC, UNITED STATES, September 16, 2024  -- The State of the Future 20.0 is a whopping 500-page overview of the current situation and prospects for the future of the world—a report card for humanity. “We are winning more than we are losing,” writes Jerome Glenn, CEO of The Millennium Project and lead author, “But where we are losing is very serious; humanity has the resources to address these challenges, but not the decisionmaking yet.”

Nearly a thousand futurists, scholars, and other experts organized by The Millennium Project have produced global collective intelligence on the future of the world in the newest State of the Future. This magnum opus provides humanity’s prospects for the future in clear, concise language.

Possibly the most comprehensive synthesis of global —AI, synthetic biology, energy, water, food, UN changes, robotics, and nanotech to the future of work, terrorism, climate change, population, gender, global ethics, and the next economics.

"As the UN prepares to convene its Summit of the Future, the State of the Future 20.0 is a very timely and visionary publication that is a must read for all the world leaders and decision makers," recommends Jehangir Khan, Secretary-General, UN Council of Presidents of the UN General Assembly.

An alternative to GDP to measure progress, the State of the Future Index 2035—contained in this report—worldwide progress over the past twenty years and continued progress over the next ten years in education, poverty reduction, infant mortality, water access, health, life extension, Internet, and women in parliaments, but regression or stagnation in press freedom, internal conflicts, organized crime, employment, corruption, information warfare, and global warming.

State of the Future 20.0 brings together an extraordinarily diverse set of data, information, intelligence, and some wisdom to provide a coherent framework to help us think tougher more clearly about the future and make smarter decisions today. This is the 20th edition of our "State of the Future" reports since The Millennium Project’s first edition in 1997.

This global assessment of our future includes an executive summary and major sections on 15 Global Challenges; the State of the Future Index 2035; international assessment of the governance of the transition to Artificial General Intelligence (AGI) issues, regulations, and global governance models; beneficial AGI by 2045, international assessment of five foresight elements for the future of the United Nations; World Futures Day 24-hour around-the-world conversation; and Robots 2050; ending with key conclusions.

"This is a visionary roadmap highlighting the most pressing challenges facing humanity and the urgent need for global collaboration to address them," writes Garry Jacobs, President, World Academy of Art and Science.

Some insights from the State of the Future 20.0:

• Managing the transition to AGI is the most difficult management problem humanity has ever faced and we may have just three years to get it right.
• Zero-sum power geopolitics leads to unending conflict until more synergetic relations are established.
• Since the global challenges are transnational in origin and solution, global collective intelligence systems for water, energy, food, S&T, climate, economics, education, gender, crime, ethics, and demographics should be integrated to improve local, national, and global decisionmaking.
• In the foreseeable future, an individual acting alone could create and deploy a weapon of mass destruction. A new social contract between government and citizens is needed to prevent this, including new family and community responsibilities.
• Doing everything right to address climate change, or AGI, or counter organized crime in one country will not make enough of a difference if other countries do not act as well; hence, far mor attention to global collaboration is more important for the future than it was in the past.

“The State of the Future 20.0 should be a required text book for all courses in international relations, international business, and any course on globalization and the future," says Koo Yun-cheol as Minister for Government Policy Coordination, Republic of Korea,

The State of the Future 20.0 is available for download at https://www.millennium-project.org/state-of-the-future-version-20.0/

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The Millennium Project is an independent non-profit global participatory futures research think tank of futurists, scholars, business planners, and policy makers who work for international organizations, governments, corporations, non-governmental organizations, and universities. It has over 70 Nodes (groups of institutions and individuals) around the world and three regional networks (Europe, Ibero-American, and South Asia) that identify long-range challenges and strategies, and initiate foresight studies, workshops, symposiums, and advanced training.

More than 4,500 experts have participated in The Millennium Project’s research since its inception in 1996. The Project’s mission is to improve thinking about the future and make those insights available through a variety of media for feedback to accumulate wisdom about the future for better decisions today.

It produces the "State of the Future" reports, the "Futures Research Methodology" series, and more than 70 special futures studies. The Millennium Project was selected by the University of Pennsylvania’s GoTo Think Tank Index as among the top think tanks in the world for new ideas and paradigms and for best quality assurance and integrity policies and procedures. It was named Computerworld Honors Laureate for its contributions to collective intelligence systems.

Jerome C Glenn
The Millennium Project
+1 202-669-4410
[email protected]
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