Millennium Matters

Q. What do the great and the good have to say about the millennium?

A. Not as much as you'd think. Two American writers came up with the rather spiffing idea of eliciting views on what the millennium means (if anything) from almost all the heads of government around the world, Nobel prize winners, artists, writers, politicians and oddly enough, astronauts. They came up with a list of 6,000 people from these categories and sent them all out a letter explaining what they were doing and enclosing a postcard so the recipient could write down their thoughts on the matter. The compilers, David Kristof and Todd Nickerson, were in for a shock on two scores: first, only 650 people out of the 6,000 replied and second, many of these people's handwriting (the postcards were going to be reproduced in the book) proved illegible and had to deciphered.

Even with only 650 replies though, the compilers still thought this was too many for inclusion in the book (for reasons best known to themselves - considering they originally wanted 6,000 replies). They decided to whittle this figure down to 250. "We worked out a system," says David Kristof, "in which we ranked the replies based on how famous the person was and how good the message was. Some of the most famous ones had stupid messages." What a surprise.

The full book will be published later in the year but here are some of the highlights, ranging as you will find from the sublime to the ridiculous, from the greatest thinkers of the day. The Nobel physicist, Leon N. Cooper, says "It's easier to predict what will happen in the next 1,000 years than what will happen next week, so (1) most of the diseases that plague us today will be cured - but others will emerge. Hopefully we'll be able to deal with them before they destroy us. (2) Thinking machines will be developed - machines that reason and perhaps are conscious. We will communicate with them as with other humans. (3) We will find a way to live forever. (4) We will continue to complain that things are not as good as they used to be. (5) If we're lucky, we will survive."

This dovetails neatly into comedian Joan River's contribution: "My prediction is that in the new millennium, interest rates will be higher and my breasts will be lower."

The novelist Gore Vidal weighs in with "much of the next millennium will be devoted to escape from a planet where, among other inconveniences, thanks to overpopulation and poisonous agricultural-industrial practices, the water supply has given out. A busy time, desalinating the oceans while sending colonies to rocks not designed for us. I also suspect the next major religion will feature a voluntary suicide gospel, to thin us out, as it were, joyously."

Author of 2001: A Space Odyssey Arthur C. Clarke predicts: "Sometime between 2000 and 3000 - proof of intelligent life elsewhere. Between 2000 and 2500 - major damage by meteor impact." Novelist Tony Hillerman says: "Through the next 1,000 years we will see a melding of races into a single homogenised humanity. However, I wonder if the species will endure. There are many devastating possibilities and our creator may decide to end the experiment."

The film director, Oliver Stone, writes that "DNA will evolve to the next state, with or without the present world population. Mind culture and artificial intelligence will replace world culture" and the director of Fermilab, Leon Lederman, thinks the "population will be stabilised and the new sources of energy will encourage environmental re-mediation. Clean, efficient nano-technologies will manufacture, from molecular modules, all the needs of the planet. War, disease, drugs will be obsolete. There will be no cash. Transactions will be carried out via DNA-authenticated credit devices. Taxes will be automatically subtracted and a growing number of citizens will sign up for virtual satisfaction helmets."

Of the musicians asked to contribute, Bruce Hornsby comes up with the jaunty "peace in the Middle East/A robot mowing your lawn/Political stability and the end of famine in Africa/Flying from the US to China for dinner/ The three-day work-week/An African-American for President", while jazz musician Sonny Rollins comes up with possibly the best prediction: "Wouldst that an alien invasion from outer space unite our diverse populations." Wouldst indeed.