Reading the text and retelling it.

I confess I am obsessed with the future – and I am not the only one. Over the centuries, people have used the stars, cards, crystal balls and even tea-levels to look into the future. I still read my horoscope every day: ‘When you get home on Friday, you will have a pleasant surprise.’ I never do have a pleasant surprise in the supermarket car park, but who knows? One day I might!

This weekend, however, we will get a surprise because hundred of futurologists are meeting at Newcastle University. The conference starts on Thursday and the experts will be discussed the impact of technology on the future. The future is now big business. I logged on to the websites of some professional futurologists and found these predictions:

The technology already exists, so very soon all of us are going use our voices to give instructions to computers.

In the next few years, we will be communicating with our friends around the world using life-sizes video images on large screens in our living rooms.

By the year 2020, computers will already have became more efficient and powerful than the human brain, both in terms of intelligence and amount the information they can store.

By the year 2030, genetic engineering nanotechnology will enable us to live for at least 150 years. Using nanotechnology, tiny, insect-like robots may be send around our bodies to carry out repairs and keep us healthy.

By the middle of the century, computers, millions of times smarter than us will have been developed. By this time we will be linking our brains with ‘ultra smart’ computers. A new specie might have developed - ‘Homo Cyberneticus’.

By the end of the century, we will have colonized our solar system and will be looking for ways to colonise deep space.

Much more interesting than horoscopes, I am sure you will age. I’ve decided I’m going to give up astrology and take up futurology – I’ll be there in Newcastle this weekend. At nine o’clock on Saturday morning, I’ll be sitting in the front row and listening the great Duke Willard talking about the future of my brain. If you can’t beat the future, join it!