EXPERTS HAVE A HANDLE ON HOW WE'LL CHANGE.

Byline: David Bloom 

For our story on life in 2025, we talked to a number of experts. Here's what they had to say:

ERA OF THE SMART WAR

Bart Kosko, information scientist, University of Southern California, author of ``The Fuzzy Future.''

``There will be around 10 billion people on earth, and about 85 percent of all remaining oil will be on the Arabian Peninsula. The big change will be when hydrogen fuel cells or some other alternative energy source is developed. Until then, there will be a huge exponentiation of profits for those (Arabian Peninsula) countries.

``It will be an era of smart war, where, for the first time, it will be cheaper to attack than to defend. Cruise missiles are an example of that. Everyone is picking them up. And there's the onset of nanotechnology. The easiest thing to do with nanotechnology is to destroy.

``The United Nations is now at 193 countries. I'll put it comfortably at 300 by then. Then there's the question of Israel. I think it'll be overrun two or three times by then. And the question of Muslim radicalism has to be dealt with.

```The world will have to figure out who owns the oceans, perhaps by randomly assigning an equal volume for each country to oversee with surveillance satellites to control pollution and other problems.

``Privacy is evaporating, too. My belief is the Internet, instead of being the door to digital freedom, is the entering edge of a true world government'' because it gets around national efforts to control information, taxation, financial transactions and more.

VISUAL LITERACY 

Tiffany Shlain, director of the Webby Awards:

``Do we go in the direction of a more Orwellian society? Whenever everyone has the ability to watch everyone else, do we have any privacy left? One issue is how connected do you want to be.

``I no longer use a phone in my home. That's become my sacred space. I need to set my own new boundaries for connectivity.

``It'll be more important to be visually literate. Knowledge will no longer be what you know, but what you can look up. You'll be able to control your dreams, in part because of developments in brain mapping. Currently, we know almost nothing about the brain.''

``I think you'll have smart trash cans and a contact lens that will project a heads-up display on your eye with information. Instead of click- throughs, you'll have blink-throughs.''

ARTIFICIAL PEOPLE

Scott Trowbridge, show producer for Universal Studios Creative Division and a creator of its Spider-man ride in Orlando, Fla.:

``I think there's going to be a lot of new options for image delivery systems in 25 years; it's quite possible we'll have realistic holographic imagery, so you can have real people and artificial people sitting in the same room with you. If we were doing T2 (the Terminator 2 3-D ride) in 25 years, what if that monster reached out and speared the 'guy' next to you and tossed him off to the side? That would make you feel the impact.''

ALWAYS CONNECTED

Peter Schwartz, futurist and chairman of the Global Business Network:

``The personal communicator device is here, and one of the big changes in life will be that to be disconnected is a matter of choice, rather than to get connected. Today you make some gesture of connection. In the future, you're connected all the time, and the question is when do you disconnect?

``We will cure a lot of things, like heart disease. The other (big medical change) is the growth of medical enhancements to the quality of life,'' as has already happened with Viagra and laser eye surgery. People will live longer and be in better shape.

``Power will erode from large institutions of all kinds, from military generals to electrical companies to big universities. And managing our money will become a big part of each day's routine, with more than half of all Americans already stockholders.''

THE WORLD AT HOME

Brian Boyl, professor of digital media at UCLA's School of Theater, Film and Television:

``We could start designing characters with real consciousness. Not just characters that look like Mickey Mouse, but how does Mickey think, how does he act, what does he feel? Can we copyright his persona?''

Interactivity (video gaming) and connectivity (the Internet) will merge more fully. And you'll ``have the information of the world at your fingertips. You really don't need to go to the office; the office is around you. You're free to move around the country. Cities are a lot less important.

``What does that say about Los Angeles, which is all set up with the infrastructure of production. It used to be, 'We have the studio, you have to come to us.' That's not the case anymore. That really turns the whole paradigm on its head.

``Filmmaking is starting to become a lot more like writing a book, where everybody has access to the technology. It comes down to the creativity, to what you have to say.''

INFINITE WEB

Ken Williams, president of Sony's Digital Studios Division:

Digital technologies in filmmaking are already ``creating new business opportunities, especially in the content creation and distribution side. It's evolved into restoration, new editing techniques, now increasingly into visual effects and photo-realistic animation.

``In the distribution sphere, we're finding tremendous opportunities in the new horizon of broadband delivery. In the future, we'll have traditional linear content, but that will be just scratching the surface. We'll have a menu of additional content. The ability to access and really personalize your entertainment is what is coming.

``We're now talking about an infinite-channel Web. There is room for a lot of new content - and not just content defined as movies and TV. My sense is the greater levels of access from lowered barriers to content generally is a good thing.''

VERY 3-D

Al Teller, CEO of online record label Atomic Pop, former head of CBS Records and MCA Music Group:

``As far as the (music) business is concerned, I think it's going to be completely reinvented. The only constants are the artists and the people who buy their music.

``The experience will be so much more sophisticated than it is today. It will be very 3-D. You'll stroll down the aisles of a (virtual) store. Touch an album, and it's there - and it's instantly available wherever you want it. You'll get charged some tiny fraction for playing it one or two times.

``It will expand the music business but also expand the music business possibilities for people who did not have power in the old paradigm. The traditional record companies aren't going to disappear, but they're going to have to adapt. Whatever the market share of the companies is right now, looking out 25 years it's going to be a radically smaller market share.''

THERMO-REACTIVE CLOTHES

Suzanne Achtemeier, Cotton Inc. trend spokeswoman, and Molly Vanden Bosch, trend spokeswoman for Cotton Inc.'s Lifestyle Monitor:

Achtemeier: ``Cotton will have a new future with reflective and thermo-reactive finishes. And feng shui principles will be used in apparel to ease the path to inner harmony through clothing with tranquil silhouettes and the use of symbolic or archetypal prints that excite or calm the mind and senses.''

Vanden Bosch: ``We continue to see a movement toward luxury and elegance - not opulent and exaggerated, but discreet, precious and feminine. There is an increased emphasis on surface and texture. Even smooth surfaces will be given finishes to achieve visual texture such as metallic, luminescent and opalescent treatments.''

LOW-MAINTENANCE COMFORT

Gerald Celente, author of ``Trends 2000,'' editor/publisher of the Trends Journal newsletter:

``We'll want low-maintenance comfort in our homes. For instance, houses will be one floor only and built ramp-ready. Younger people will be very appliance-oriented, because they grew up in the wide world of computers. Their homes will be designed so that you walk into a room for a three-dimensional, virtual reality online experience.

``I doubt there will be space-age fashion made of plastic or paper, because this is real life, not science fiction. But I do predict more and more microfibers that will replace or blend with natural fibers.''

PRACTICAL AND FLATTERING

Leon Hall, spokesman for the Fashion Association:

``What's out in 2025 will be tattoos, because there's nothing sadder than a sagging tattoo on a mature body, but we'll still be poking ourselves with needles, as collagen and botox injections will be commonplace.

``In general, people will be less concerned about what's trendy and more concerned about what's practical and flattering. For instance, leather with Lycra will make us all look better, plus keep our shoes looking newer. Platinum is the metal of the millennium.

``Bargain hunters will shop the Internet, but retail won't be dead. Customer service and such things as tailoring will be key for the store of the future.''

- David Bloom

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