CULTURE
What if—
- Unprecedented immigration follows a nuclear accident or a Mexican or Turkish Revolution.
- Europe and Japan fail to manage their demographic challenges, aging rapidly yet unable to replace 110 million lost workers by 2015.
- A cheap technology for universal, wireless communication via voice/ text/image becomes available.
- Weather epidemics—the health consequence of rapidly changing weather patterns—strike.
- A new incurable but highly infectious virus emerges.
- Rapid advances in, and the diffusion of, biotechnology, nanotechnology, and the materials sciences extend life and expand the quality of that life, while also adding to the bioterrorist arsenal.
- China disintegrates, with a new state emerging composed of the Guangdong region, Hong Kong, and Taiwan.
- The United States (or the European Union) loosens the human rights restraints on federalism, giving far greater autonomy to its constituent states.
- A cultural incident inflames Muslim opinion, leading to anti-Western terrorism.
- Criminal conspiracies flourish, trafficking in illegal immigration, money laundering, narcotics, and illegal arms trade.
- The emergence of enlightened business leaders creates a climate of international cooperation.
- New international institutions emerge to manage the effects of globalization.