The predictions range from miracle cures and world peace to economic ruin and nuclear war. If there is a theme to the World Questions 2009, an online survey of some of the world�s top thinkers, it would seem to be inconsistency.

The predictions range from miracle cures and world peace to economic ruin and nuclear war. If there is a theme to the World Questions 2009, an online survey of some of the world's top thinkers, it would seem to be inconsistency.

Published yesterday on intellectual website edge.org, the survey asked 110 leading scientists, artists and commentators for their views on the single biggest change likely to affect the world during their lifetimes.

The wide range of answers they gave provides a snapshot of the hopes - and fears - that may come to define our times.

Musician Brian Eno set a pessimistic tone for the survey, summarising his expectations as "the feeling that things are inevitably going to get worse".

He wrote: "Human development thus far has been fuelled and guided by the feeling that things could be, and are probably going to be, better. What if this feeling changes? What if it comes to feel like there isn't a long term - or not one to look forward to?" Though admitting that his vision of a world where "survivalism rules and might will be right" was a "dark thought", Mr Eno warned that his grim prediction was one that humanity must "keep an eye on".

More optimistic was author Ian McEwan, who predicted the growth the rise of solar power. "By nearly all expert accounts, we are or will be at peak oil production somewhere between now and the next five years," he wrote. "Even if we did not have profound concerns about climate change, we would need to be looking for different ways to power our civilization. How fortunate we are to have a safe nuclear facility a mere 93 million miles away."

Mr McEwan looked forward to a world, he wrote, where humans looked back and wondered why we ever "thought we had a problem when we are bathed in such beneficent radiant energy".

Professor Ian Wilmut, director of the Scottish Centre for Regenerative Medicine and one of the scientists behind the project that cloned Dolly the sheep, predicted advances in genetics and medicine, with stem cell research providing an opportunity to improve life quality and expectancy.

He wrote: "I certainly find it very exciting to think that in my lifetime treatments will be available for some of the many hundred inherited diseases."