Sunday, December 16, 2012

Global Trends 2030, predicted by US Intelligence Council

December 16, 2012
Iurii Bystro, M13 class, HHL Leipzig School of Management

On December 10, 2012 United States National Intelligence Council has published a report, which outlines possible future development scenarios in the next 15-20 years. The idea to popularize the report was inspired by the Social Networking debates in HHL School of Management, which center around the role of social networking in organizations in 2025.

The findings of this report are helpful for understanding the trends of that not-so-distant future. Particular interest invokes a megatrend of individual empowerment  due "to poverty reduction, growth of the global middle class, greater educational attainment, widespread use of new communications and manufacturing technologies, and health-care advances". The world will not be dominated by one gegemonic power, but rather by networks and coalitions. Social networking technologies will be a double-edged sword - "On the one hand, social networking will enable citizens to coalesce and challenge governments, as we have already seen in Middle East. On the other hand, such technologies will provide governments - both authoritarian and democratic - an unprecedented ability to monitor their citizens". One of the potential implications of social networking technologies can be "the use of alternative and virtual monetary currencies".

Intriguing will be development of robotics. Its application will become both interesting and controversial topic of discussion in mass media. "Successful prosthetics probably will be directly integrated with the user’s body. Brain-machine interfaces could provide “superhuman” abilities, enhancing strength and speed, as well as providing functions not previously available.Owing to the high cost of human augmentation, it probably will be available in 15-20 years only to those who are able to pay for it. Such a situation may lead to a two-tiered society of an enhanced and non-enhanced persons and may require regulation".

Quite an interesting piece to read. The full version is here:

http://www.dni.gov/index.php/about/organization/global-trends-2030