Interest rates

Question: What will the interest rates be next year or in a week?

Answer: We usually say that if we knew that, we would only work an hour per month and instead be busy spending all the money that we would earn from that hour.

Football results

Question: What will the football results be this weekend and what about the weather next week?

Answer: Well, it wouldn’t be fun if we knew that!

Machines

Question: Will people be replaced by machines in 25 years?

Answer: The answer is of course, no. But it is one of those questions where experience helps in answering the question.

Media

Question: I would like to know how many years it will be before physical media like papers, magazines, DVDs and CDs disappear?

Answer: We’d like to know too, but the only thing we can answer is what these media are used for today, and how much progress alternative media need to make before the old ones disappear. CDs and DVDs are doomed for the simple reason that new media are better and faster. The book has been declared dead so many times to no effect that it seems incredible when someone still thinks that they will disappear very soon. There have never been sold as many books as are being sold today.

Pets

Question: We have spoiled pets these days, where the owners buy jewelry, bags and beds for them. What’s a futurist’s opinion about this?

Answer: We don’t have an opinion about that, since we only deal with what we know about. Our opinions are according to us a non-issue and they don’t matter. But we can of course say something about what started the phenomenon and how it will develop.

Columbine Massacre

Question: What I’d like to ask is, if you can help me by giving your opinion on why things like the Columbine (mass shooting at school) massacre is spreading to Europe. What is going on in the minds of the kids? What makes them do it?

Answer: Again we don’t have opinions about what is going on. At best, we have an analysis of why it’s happening and what drives the young people to do it – and that’s completely different.

The Sun

Question: Is the sun going to die soon?

Answer: As far as we know, within 5 billion years.