About Future Brief

Quantum physics, terrorism, Moore's Law, global warming, increasing human migration, incurable deadly viruses, ever more sophisticated surveillance, the list goes on and on. We speak of "global community", but can forget that community-building has always been a painful experience in human history. The reward potential is balanced by the risk potential. Neither should be ignored.

Scientists today speak of the "NBIC convergence" - the interaction of advances in nanotechnology, biotechnology, the information sciences, and the cognitive sciences. Future Brief takes one step back and looks at the greater convergence of the accelerating changes in science and technology with the equally rapidly accelerating changes in society and politics.

Future Brief's purpose is not only to provide commentary, but also to provide services to those with an interest in global convergence. This convergence is of critical importance to all of us today and to those who will follow us in the future. We can either choose to deal constructively with it now or be forced to deal with it abruptly following a global catastrophe. We opt for the former.

Future Brief is an integral part of the work of New Global Initiatives, Inc., an American firm with a global perspective and global operations based in Bethesda, Maryland. However, New Global, as we're called informally, sees Future Brief as a collaborative effort with others sharing similar concerns and interests. Your participation in this site's development is not simply welcomed, it is genuinely encouraged. If you have ideas or recommendations, let us know.

Not only is our global community changing, it is changing at an accelerating pace. If you don't keep up, you will fall behind. Linear thinking will not suffice in an exponentially changing world.

A great many internal and external portents (political and social upheaval, moral and religious unease) have caused us all to feel more or less confused, that something tremendous is at present taking place in the world. But what is it?
Teilhard de Chardin (1881-1955)