William E. Halal of
George Washington University's Emerging
technologies forecast was asked the following question by the
World Future Society:
Is there a "wild card" among the breakthroughs you cite for the next century, something that could have an unexpectedly dramatic impact on the future, either negatively or for the good?
This is the answer he gave:
I suspect the wild card is going to be the realization that you can only do so much with
information, that we are approaching a domain beyond
knowledge. Infotechnology is going to mature in the next 10 to 20 years. The systems will be up, the earth will be wired, and we will be able to do everything we want with information.
We will then enter an era of spirit. You can see it starting today as people embrace
values,
beliefs, and vision--all of those things that are essential to navigate through the mass of information, to find meaning and purpose. The emergence of this era of
spirit is going to become startlingly clear soon.
There will be a change in basic assumptions. For example, the concept of the corporation will be scrutinized. How are you going to justify corporate
profit-taking in a world of values, meaning, and purpose? The flaunting of wealth and materialism may be reversed as people reconsider the
gap between the
rich and the
poor.
In about 10 years, certainly no more than 20 years, we will talk about a spiritual age the way we now talk about the
information age.