The Internet has the potential to become an important tool with which to embrace an awakening new consciousness and stimulate the evolution of society. Whether they have Internet access or not, 53% (approximately 54 million households) say they would be interested in subscribing to a new type of Internet service that is dedicated to personal and global transformation and that is not commercially oriented.

Global Change and Information Technology

A majority (85%) of respondents believe that the more information and knowledge they have at their fingertips, the better their lives will be. Yet less than half (46%) are optimistic that technology will help foster trust among people by increasing communication. This raises further questions as to whether we will we use the Internet as a vital tool through which people can envision and create a deeper, broader personal connection with each other and their world. Perhaps by encouraging integral and more spiritually aware perspectives of ourselves, each other, and the cosmos, the structures of our society--such as the Internet--will come to reflect and reinforce new ways of creating a positive future.

Respondents who most believe that technology will help foster trust and that having more information will make life better tend to be most identified with working to create a new life of wholeness for themselves. Those who least believe this are most identified with traditional, material values and lifestyles.

Future Concerns

Overall, Americans are generally optimistic about the future. Seventy-nine percent are confident that no matter what happens in the future, humankind will adapt to it. It is worth noting that 55% of the respondents believe that most children are not worried about their future. Only a small minority (17%) believe that science will eventually be able to explain everything, and slightly over a third (37%) believe that during the next ten years technological breakthroughs will take care of the environmental problems facing us today. Overall, Americans believe that the three major threats to the future of the world are disease epidemics, terrorism, and world war.

The data suggest that as a society we do not share a clear sense of what future to create. Respondents were asked three questions about our future during the next ten years. These questions, asked independently of each other, focused on whether life will go on pretty much the same, whether people are concerned that humanity is headed for serious prob-