FUTURE BRIEF POLL RESULTS:

The following questions were submitted by Future Brief readers. The poll itself, taken by a statistically-valid sample of more than 13,400 adult Americans, was conducted by Zogby International, an opinion research firm, on January 27-30, 2006.

QUESTION: Which of the following would you most like to see accomplished through the development of emerging technologies?

RESULTS:*

- An end to world hunger: 18.2%

- An end to disease: 20.5%

- Extended life-span: 5.4%

- Exploration of the universe: 4.7%

- An end to fossil fuels: 45.6%

- None/Not sure: 5.6%

*Due to rounding, percentages may add up to over 100%. Margin of error is +/- 0.9%

Race appears to play a striking factor in the way in which Americans hope that emerging technologies will eradicate global problems. Significantly more african-americans (36.4%) hope to see disease eradicated, compared to 19% of whites and 14.7% of hispanics. Additionally, only 32.7% of african-americans want to see technology end our reliance on fossil fuels, compared to 47.6% of whites, 46.2 percent of hispanics, and 42.4% of asians.

Geography has a slight impact on the way in which people hope to see emerging technology solve global problems. 51% of those living in rural areas want to see emerging technologies end our dependence on fossil fuels, compared to 42.4% of those living in the suburbs.

Next: Which are you more worried about - the threat of terrorists attacking the United States, or losing personal privacy in an effort to prevent a terrorist attack?