Will your job even exist in a thousand years? If so, in what form? If some kind of machine were to replace you, what would it be called?
Yes it will. People don't get smarter inside 1000 years. The truth and reality still won't mean as much to some people. We will still need to teach critical thinking. The media and businesses will continue to be our worst enemies and our best friends. Quack medicine -- chiropractic, homeopathy, et cetera -- has no value yet is likely to persist. If we can get away from that kind of thinking, we'd be better off. The only thing that could replace the work we do would be an improved brain or some kind of inputted software -- called education.
Which events from the year 2001 will still be talked about a thousand years from now? How will history interpret -- or misinterpret -- those events?
The attempt to go to Mars with a complicated ship that can do what manned craft can't. I hope the space program will get more sensible, because I'm willing to spend my tax dollars on it. Sending a man to the moon is glamorous but can be somewhat of a letdown. History's an imperfect thing; imagine what would have happened if Hitler had won. There are many things that never happened but have become part of cultural history, and technology also has a hand in the outcome of events.
What will South Florida look like one millennium from now?
There will be more Hawaiian shirts, and the average age for Broward County, which at the present is deceased, can't get any higher. There will be more and more land being developed, and the wetlands and other wildlife will cease to exist.
What will human beings look like?
Humans will all look like Marilyn Monroe and Tom Cruise. I hope we'll get over some of our compulsion to look like Twiggy, too. I'm appalled at what I see in the configuration of older people. I hope we'll get healthier but not thinner. We need to stop needing to be so thin -- look at the anorexics and bulimics. It's peer pressure to look perfect. Maybe we'll get over that way of thinking -- or not thinking.
Which South Florida tourist attractions will stand the test of time, and which will disappear? What will the new tourist traps look like?
Walt Disney World and Universal Studios will still be around, and Coral Castle will continue to fascinate the gullible; there are still silly people around with a genuine curiosity for the very strange fellow who built that place. The new tourist traps will be rides: roller coasters with almost zero gravity that practically put you into orbit. We want to push the limits; it's the nature of our species.