ABSTRACT
Humanity could benefit greatly if our generation were to increase at least threefold the creative thinking, disciplined inquiry, theory-building, basic research, profound books, doctoral theses, and cutting-edge conference sessions devoted to the future. The long-term benefits of this increase would far outweigh the costs. Even a tenfold increase might not be extravagant compared to the payoff. We cannot be sure of the optimum level of spending for developing the future-relevant knowledge base, but we are sure that the gap between that optimum level and our current level is huge, bizarre, poignant, and foolish.
