Your paper should address some version of the following inquiry question: “How likely is

Your paper should address some version of the following inquiry question:

“How likely is it that 100 or more years from now [X] will be a reality?”

“X” stands for some predicted, desirable change or marvel or improvement in the future, something that seems too good to be true today. Your goal is to discover if it is too good ever to be true. Or “X” could stand for the opposite; it could be an undesirable change or catastrophe or evil in the future that you hope will never take place, that seems too terrible for people ever to let happen. Your goal in that case would be to discover if it is too terrible ever to be true.

In coming up with your “X,” be sure to consider all the possible areas that you might be interested in: work (farming, accounting, policing, teaching, banking), sports (football, soccer, basketball, running), entertainment (TV, movies, music, theater, gaming), sex, marriage, education, driving, eating, flying, home-owning, shopping, growing old, raising kids, having kids, vacationing, religion, politics, medicine, and so on.

Furthermore, you may want to consider some of the episodes you have seen of Black Mirror or The Twilight Zone or some other science fiction show, and use your research essay to explore whether it is possible that what happens in one of the episodes of these shows could ever really become reality in the future. Whatever topic you select, be sure you can find at least five sources about your topic.

Once again, be sure that you approach this assignment with an inquiry mindset. It is crucial that you remain skeptical about whatever future change you choose to focus on, delaying judgment about whether the change is possible or not until after you’ve sought out arguments from both sides and considered research that both supports such a change being possible and that throws doubt on the possibility of such a change ever taking place. Your essay should be a record of how you went from being skeptical and unsure to finally being convinced by the evidence to accept one conclusion as most likely to be true. The more you seem to be a cheerleader for one side or the other, the less credible you will be. We want to see you challenging what others say and raising hard questions and resisting reaching any easy answers on your way to figuring out—objectively, logically, honestly—what’s right.