OK, this is basically a packaging concept based on a pun. Megatrends was a fascinating bestseller that forecast the future and spawned a set of sequels. Being more of a pessimist than is healthy (and always a prankster), I thought: Why not Negatrends, a gathering of gloom-and-doom scenarios into one book? Global warming. Emergent diseases. The death of privacy. Asteroid disaster. Religious juggernauts. Overpopulation. Terrorism. End of fossil fuels. Rise of intelligent machines. Nuclear proliferation. Each chapter would be written by someone who’s an expert … at scaring people’s pants off. Too scary? OK, each chapter could have ideas for solutions, how to avert each crisis. …

Well, what do you know? A search of Amazon.com turns up a couple of times Negatrends has been tried in a title. But one publication seems to be an out-of-print 160-page tract from the American Bureau of Economic Research, and the other is a seemingly warm-and-fuzzy 1999 endeavor, PosiTrends — Or Negatrends? about interpersonal relationships in the new millennium. So idea’s still viable. But hurry. The end is near.