This month I gave birth to our second child, Jonah. (How is that as an excuse for lapsed blogging?) A few days later, I realized that this kid won't be able to vote until 2024! To me, 2024 sounds like the unfathomable future: the territory of Buck Rogers, Star Trek and Battlestar Galactica. A future in which we'll be governed by giant robots and vote through telepathic connections to a satellite tower that reaches into outer space.

I was all geared up to write a blog post predicting what online politics will look like in 2024, but I came up against a stumbling block. And not just the usual stumbling block of worrying that my predictions will be proven wrong. That's not that scary: from what I can see, people forget about the 19 incorrect predictions and just remember the one thing you get right.

What made me hesitate was a far more fundamental uncertainty: will our politics -- or our Internet -- look even remotely like our current system by the time 2024 rolls around? Or will the ever-mounting number of colossal political, economic, environmental and social catastrophes -- global warming, the war in Iraq, peak oil, rogue terrorism -- accumulate to the point at which our society essentially collapses?

On our current, unsustainable path, it's hard to predict much of anything with confidence. All I can see is today: today's opportunities for making that path more sustainable, for turning these accelerating catastrophes into pressure to revise and reform our political, economic, environmental and social decisions.

And I think the Internet is a crucial part of that reform. It gives more and more people an ever-broadening number of effective, engaging and often easy ways to voice and press for their priorities. It puts us in touch with a wider range of our fellow citizens so that we can understand how other people are affected by our current disasters. And it's a medium in which ordinary folks can engage from a position that is equal to -- or even more powerful than -- the traditional power-brokers who dominate other media.

If 2024 is to be a time in which technology still holds the promise to support our political, social and economic needs -- rather than a time of post-catastrophe chaos -- then we all need to use today's technology to turn the world from its current destructive path. For Jonah, and for all the other folks who should have the opportunity to vote, engage and thrive in 2024, I've put together a list of 10 ways that the Internet can make the world better for our kids:

1. Give online: Set up a regular online donation to at least two charitable causes: one advocacy group that is working to change the world, and one front-line service group that is working to help people today.
2. Spam smart: I dread mass e-mails from my friends that pass along the latest Internet joke or chain letter. But when a friend who usually abstains from mass e-mailing sends out a rare plea to support a cause with a donation or signature, I pay attention. If you limit yourself to one or two mass e-mails a year, personally asking your friends and colleagues to support a cause can be a powerful act.
3. Be an informed citizen: Public ignorance enables elite control. Keep an eye on the powers that be by using the latest information tools to stay up-to-date on crucial news. Set your browser’s home page to a newspaper web site or a personalized news page like Google homepage.
4. Turn your kids onto persuasive games instead of shoot ‘em up games: Does anyone think that the world’s prospects for survival are improved by kids spending time learning how to kill? Get your kids out of those first person shooters, and encourage them to spend time playing games where they learn about political issues.
5. Participate in an online community: Researchers have suggested that one of the most corrosive forces in our society today is the social disconnection that sees people alone at home, watching TV, rather than engaging in their communities. Virtual communities can help to turn that tide, so get off that sofa, sit down at your desk, and find an online community (like a group blog or social networking site) that will help to deepen your own social connectedness.
6. Hook up a kid: Help your local school or community centre extend Internet access to more people by donating an old computer, or better yet, money to help buy a new one.
7. Track the news you can control: What are the institutions, people or issues over which you personally have some small amount of influence? Maybe it’s your employer. Or the city councilor who happens to live down the street. Or the big retailer where you buy most of your groceries and household goods. Keep track of what they’re up to with an RSS aggregator and an RSS feed (what’s RSS?) that tracks news about that person, business or issue….and use your knowledge to hold them to account.
8. Sign here: Online petitions may be a dime a dozen, but they’re a great way to get your political juices flowing. Make a point of signing at least one every month, and it will ensure you pay attention to at least one new political issue.
9. Adopt a blogger: The blogosphere is full of worthy bloggers who need recognition – or in the case of bloggers in authoritarian countries, active protection. Help to encourage a voice that wouldn’t otherwise get heard by promoting that person’s blog on your own blog or web site.
10. Volunteer online: Lots of nonprofits are parceling out jobs that can be done online (like the PeopleFinder project that tapped volunteers to assemble a database of Hurricane Katrina survivors.) Even if you can’t make time to get to an office, the Internet can ensure your spare time helps a good cause.
11. Help (un)wire a good cause: Lots of valuable community groups still aren’t tapping the power of the net because they lack the time or expertise to set up a web site or to develop more advanced web services. If you’re tech-savvy.
12. Think different: Make a point of regularly reading at least one blog written by someone who looks at the world from a different perspective – better yet, a perspective that you loathe. At worst, you’ll get some strategic insights into your political opposition, and at best, you might discover some common ground.
13. Find some co-conspirators: Howard Dean isn’t the only person who can use the net to find political sympathizers. Check out the groups on meeetup.com to find a group of like-minded folks in you community, and start making trouble.
14. Stand up and sit down: Stand up for a good cause by participating in a virtual sit-in.
15. Yours truly, World Peace: Your e-mail signature can do more than offer contact information. Add a link to your favorite cause and encourage your correspondents to support that organization.
16. Give that landfill a break: Use sites like Consumer Reports, CNET and epinions to research your purchases so that you buy stuff that lasts. Dead computers are a major contributor to landfills – so take the time to find the tech, appliances and household goods that won’t have to get junked next year.
17. Telecommute: Get your car off the road and that CO2 out of the air by working from home, and stay in touch via web, e-mail, IM and Skype.
18. Wear your heart on your sleeve: Let people know you care about an issue by ordering a T-shirt that speaks to your cause – and kicks back a few dollars to an organization working on that issue. If you can’t find the message you’re looking for, .
19. Love a do-gooder: Governments, schools, hospitals and charitable organizations are full of folks who are doing hard work to make the world better or more livable, often with little financial or social rewards. If you’ve been helped by someone in one of these organizations, take five minutes to send an e-mail to their supervisor, and copy the person who helped you out. That kind of positive feedback is crucial to encouraging public service.
20. Ask your friends to vote: That low voter turnout rate isn’t an abstraction: chances are that many people you know don’t bother to vote. A personal appeal by e-mail, in which you tell people why you think it’s important to them to vote, can help encourage people to take part in this most fundamental rite of democratic participation.
21. Stop buying and start swapping: Reduce consumption and waste by using swapping sites to get rid of your old stuff and find (rather than buy) the items you need. Just do a google search on “swap” plus the name of your city (or the nearest city) to find a site that lets you swap with other people in your community.
22. Cut down on car use: Use the web to find rideshares instead of driving alone. Or help promote bike riding by finding or organizing a < a href=” http://www.critical-mass.org/”>critical mass ride in your community.
23. Kill your television: Don’t let your TV run your life or schedule anymore. Use bittorrent or iTunes to watch the shows you can’t miss – but at your own convenience. No more passing up community events in order to catch that crucial episode of Lost!
24. Turn off your computer: Sometimes the best thing the Internet can do for the world is to remind you that the world still exists. No amount of online organizing and activism can take the place of real-world interaction. So turn off, tune in and drop into the real world to see what you can do there, too.