Futurist talks about the future of Christianity

Kevin Kelly on the Next 1,000 Years of Christianity churchrelevance.com
What's your point caller?: Q - Kevin Kelly

I've been a reader of Wired magazine for a few years, and I've come to really respect the work of its founder Kevin Kelly. He is a renowned Futurist, I've written a couple of entries about Kevin Kelly before. I also think his Cool Tools list is just awesome. I recently discovered that Kevin is a Christian, and I did a little more research.

Today's links are notes from a talk that Kevin Kelly gave at a Fermi Conference. He did his futurist thing on possible futures for the Christian church over the next 1,000 years, and his findings are pretty novel. A lot has changed in the church in the past 1,000 years, but he states plainly that one thousand years is only 13 generations. Even predicting half a generation ahead produces some surprising results, and he predicts that by 2040, 30% of all Christians will be from China and the world population will be shrinking.

Evil Mad Scientists Print Candy

Objects
Originally uploaded by oskay.

Evil Mad Scientist Laboratories - Solid freeform fabrication

3D fabrication is the new computer printer. Create a three dimensional design on your computer, then send it off to the fabricator to get it printed. For a cool intro to 3D printing, check out Clive Thompson's story in Wired about how he designed and printed a guitar.

For now, these Star Trek-like replicators have been confined to labs and manufacturers because fabricators are expensive, and their materials are not cheap either.

Now these Evil Mad Scientists (seriously! that's what they call themselves) have made their own fabricator on the cheap, and are using sugar as their material. That's right, they're printing CANDY! They've made a giant screw, a loopy coil, and a geometric block, all out of SUGAR!!!! Their website has step-by-step descriptions of the the entire process, and describes how they built their fabricator. The Evil Mad Scientists will be at the Maker Faire this weekend in the San Francisco area to show off their work

Aren't mad scientists just sooo cool?

Today's Link source: Buzzfeed

Very cool tools!

Kevin Kelly Cool Tools

Practical user-submitted gadgets, products and services that have actually been USED and recommended by real people. The website and email list are maintained by Kevin Kelly; co-founder of Wired magazine. The mailing list is sent out weekly.

There is a huge range of items listed.

Some of the Tools are obvious, but most are pretty obscure. Some are even free!

I really appreciate that the listings are not sponsored; they are suggested by real-world fanatics that have hands-on experience with Tools they nominate. In a world of millions of similar products, these recommendations and reviews mean a LOT to me when I'm considering what to buy.

Mega News Aggregator

popurls.com

This is my favourite site of 2006.

Popurls.com is a news website that doesn't have any reporters; it's a news aggregator. It grabs the current top 10 news headlines from Google news, Digg, Wired magazine, Yahoo news, Netscape, Fark, NowPublic as well as the top entries on del.icio.us, Flickr, YouTube and more. This means you get hundreds (thousands?) of links to bleeding edge news stories from everywhere on the web. Harness the power of web users finding the best news stories for you.

It's my home page in my browser, and I skim through it every time I open a new window. I have often seen news stories broken here first, literally DAYS before I read them in the local newspaper. The site is well designed, customizable, and allows for fast skimming.

Congratulations! You are now up to date, and have your finger on the pulse of the internet.

Happy New Year!