Stephen Downes
Stephen's Web
Trend Blend 2009: A Map of Time and Tide
You have to love the diagram. What about the 'mega-trends' represented? "The mega-trends are: global connectivity, anxiety, volatility, uncertainty, debt, power shift eastwards, aging, GRIN technologies, digitalisation, climate change and sustainability." Forget things like aging, anxiety and volatility - these are properties of only a few (western, industrialized) countries. Forget things like debt and power shifts; we will all have to face worldwide shortages of food, resources and energy against a backdrop of potentially catastrophic climate change. New technologies will help, but in order to address these issues we will have to each of us become a lot smarter, because the solutions will necessarily be distributed solutions. Becoming smarter, however, depends on resolving inequity and addressing poverty - which will mean forcing those who have taken it to return the wealth they have extracted from society. A tall order. Beth Kanter, Beth's Blog, December 24, 2008 3:51 p.m.. [Link]
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