The obviously lacking information in the below report is the
prospects of medical breakthroughs that would cure or reduce the
incidence of eye diseases. Throughout history, so-called experts
have made these kinds of dire predictions and, if they were
right, we would all be starving and living with an average of
about 10 square feet of space for each of us.

Fortunately, experts undervalue and underestimate the ultimate
resource, the human imagination and ingenuity, which comes to the
rescue. For a more realistic idea of what the future will yield,
you might want to read a book by that title "The Ultimate
Resource" by Julian Simon. A visionary book on the future of
technology is Engines of Creation, by Eric Drexler.

Peter Seymour


Report: Age-related blindness expected to double

By Kathleen Fackelmann, USA TODAY

More than 1 million Americans age 40 and older suffer from
blindness today, a number that will double in the next few
decades as the boomer generation ages, says a government report.

The experts who wrote the report predict that, by 2020, 1.8
million Americans will be blind and another 3.4 million will
suffer from impaired vision that
could threaten their way of life.

As people get older, their risk of developing a number of
age-related blinding diseases increases, says Paul Sieving,
director of the National Eye Institute,
part of the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Md. The
institute, along with Prevent Blindness America, a non-profit
group dedicated to saving sight, released the report Wednesday.

Leading causes of vision problems and blindness, according to the
report: Diabetic retinopathy affects 5.3 million people today and
will strike 7.6 million by 2020. Diabetes often causes tiny blood
vessels in the eye to leak, which can lead to vision problems.
Age-related macular degeneration affects 1.6 million now; that
number will grow to 2.7 million by 2020. Macular


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