Terrorism, tension between China and the US, an uncontrollable plague … Wired’s 24-year-old list of what could go wrong with the world is depressingly familiar
In 1997, when things could only get better, Wired magazine gave over an issue to the raw optimism of the age: we should look forward to 20 solid years of peace, prosperity and progress, as a new age of consensus politics and technological advance smoothed away the rough edges of the warlike beings we once were. Tucked away in this panacea was a little list: 10 things that could go wrong, and dim the otherwise glittering brightness of the future. It’s like looking in a goddamn mirror.
“Tensions between China and the US could escalate into a new cold war,” they said. Can I tell you what our collective 90s consciousness thought about that? Meh. Cold wars are fine. We did the last one no problem.