In this digital age, we are being bombarded with information everyday. There is so much information being generated everyday that we are literally drowning in it. Take for example the fact that Reuters publishes more than 3 million news stories every year. Reuters is just one source and it is still capable of generating so much news. So will all these news stories matter in a few years? Will we even remember the sensational stories in say 10,000 years? In this video, Kirk Citron – famous advertising executive and current editor and curator at “The Long News”, talks about news in the current times and how it will matter thousands of years down the line.
The Long News
The Long News is a project that is dedicated to finding stories that could still be relevant and matter maybe even 10,000 years from now. Founded by the Long Now Foundation, the Long News project already has a huge archive of news stories and articles that they think will be important for future generations.
According to Kirk, even news stories about our recent global economic meltdown and skyrocketing unemployment rates may soon be forgotten by the general public. In the future, we could have tiny nano-robots coursing through our bloodstream destroying cancers and other diseases. However, scientists have already created such robots and recent news stories show that nanobees can inject cancer cells with their venom. Scientists have also already created nanorobots that can crawl through the human body. These are the kind of news stories that could matter in the future when such technology is commonplace.
In the world of agriculture, one of the current top stories is the fact that in the future we could have 9 billion people on the planet with no way to feed them all. Even with 6 billion people, we are unable to feed everybody, so these stories could be crucial in the future. Also in the world of global politics, news stories about the rise of China could be relevant in the future when China becomes the world leader and sets the agenda for global politics.
Kirk’s top story
Of all the news stories that he highlights in this video, he thinks the most significant news story is the one about water being found on the moon. In the not-so-distant future, humans may be forced to set-up a colony on the moon and this piece of news could be very important. Kirk concludes by saying that there are some news stories that are more important than others and that they need to be preserved. Watch this video to learn about Kirk’s other top news stories and how they will matter in the future.