Welcome… to the future

Over the past 60 years, The New Scientist has not just reported new discoveries and inventions in science and technology. They have also tried to explain why they matter and where they're likely to lead. That's not easy. There can be very fine lines between testable predictions, educated guesswork and flights of fancy. But it is very much a rough draft: then, as now, attempting to predict the future in detail is a largely futile enterprise. Here, Paul-Choudry delves into how science and technology might upturn the world as people know it, for good and ill.