Futurist Argues that the U.S. Requires New Bill of Rights for the Twenty-First Century

Bethesda, MD: According to world renowned futurist Joseph F. Coates, "The Bill of Rights has served the nation well over the past two centuries. However, times have changed radically in too many ways to be accommodated by the amendment process." At 9 AM on Tuesday July 31st, Coates will present a discussion on the topic, "A Bill of Rights for America in the 21st Century," as part of the annual conference of the World Future Society, currently taking place at the Hilton Minneapolis.

"The Bill is a product of the interactions, trade offs, hopes, and fears at play during America’s colonial period. As a continental nation, a global power, a multi-ethnic, multi-cultural leader in science and technology, the United States faces a future that is immeasurably more complex than the one faced by our founding fathers.That complexity calls for a fresh look at rights, preserving the best of the past, modifying where change is called for and adding new rights as circumstances require," says Coates, president, Joseph F. Coates Consulting Futurist, Inc. and co-author, 2025: Scenarios of U.S. and Global Society Reshaped by Science and Technology.

More than 1,000 futurists from such institutions and organizations as Kellogg Company, 3M Information Technology, IBM, NASA, Aveda, Rutgers University, Wells Fargo, Sun Microsystems, Saab AB, CSP Japan Inc., the U.S. Army and Air Force, General Motors, and from countries all over the world will converge on the Hilton Minneapolis for the conference July 29-31, which will feature nearly 100 sessions and presentations on such topics as nanotechnology, biotechnology, security and terrorism, and environmental stewardship.

Founded in 1966 as a nonprofit educational and scientific organization in Washington, D.C., the World Future Society has some 25,000 members in more than eighty countries around the world. Individuals and groups from all nations are eligible to join the Society and participate in its programs and activities.

Presenting at this year's conference: Gregory Stock of the UCLA School of Public Health; Helen Fisher of the Rutgers University; Tor Dahl, founder, president and CEO of Tor Dahl associates; Nat Irvin II of Wake Forest University; and dozens more from the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, MIT, eBay, the Inter-American Development Bank and others. Registration for the conference is $600.

For information about WorldFuture 2007, contact the World Future Society at 1-301-656-8274. Or contact the Hilton Minneapolios 612 376-1000 and ask for the registration desk of the World Future Society conference. You can also visit the society's Web site at www.wfs.org