FUTURE

Independent: Future tense
Is mankind doomed? Against the background of the war against terror, the march of technology and environmental calamity, this has become the defining question of our age. As politicians warn of the threat from weapons of mass destruction, Prince Charles frets about the world being turned into 'grey goo' by miniature robots. Meanwhile, food campaigners warn by turns that we're going to starve if we don't plant GM crops, and if we do, there's barely time to heed warnings that Sars was just a dress rehearsal for a pandemic that will make Ebola look like the common cold. Charles Arthur weighs fact against hysteria, science against supposition - and assesses our chances of making it to the year 3000