Keynote & Workshop Topics:
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Technology
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Tracking the Downstream Effects of Technology
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It's clear that technology is advancing with unprecedented speed, but what is less clear is what effects these advances will have on business, government, consumers, and society. Yet the downstream effects - the secondary, tertiary, quaternary effects and beyond - of technological developments are almost always more significant than the immediate impact of the technology itself. For instance, refrigeration extended life expectancy; the invention of air travel revolutionized warfare, helped produce McLuhan's Global Village, spread new diseases with unprecedented speed, and boosted global terrorism; computer games lead to childhood obesity and health problems and may be eroding the socialization skills the allow society to function; and the Internet is redefining the way business is conducted as well as revolutionizing politics.
In this intriguing and interactive look at advances yet to come, futurist Richard Worzel will outline the pivotal technologies, and involve participants in a series of structured exercises to identify not only what technological developments will be key, but what the downstream, ripple effects of these technologies will be.
'You cannot look at the future in vague, general terms and get useful results,' says Worzel. 'Accordingly, we will break the future down into well-defined, specific segments, and assess what changes may come in these segments, and what effects they will have. The introduction of these techniques will give conferees a tool box that they can take away with them and use repeatedly in assessing the future.'
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The Future of IT: Are We Up to It?
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Most technology professionals accept Moore's Law as gospel, yet it's actually too conservative. Not only is the rate of change in technology accelerating, but the rate of acceleration is increasing as well. Some analysts believe that 20 years from now, computers will be a billion times faster than they are today. Whether they're right or not, it is certain that the changes that will be wrought by information technologies over the next 20 years will be much more significant than the changes of the last 20 years. This raises the question: Are we up to the task?
Futurist and strategic planner Richard Worzel holds a degree in computer science, and wrote his first computer program in 1959. In this challenging keynote presentation, he assesses the changes we've experienced, looks out at the changes to come, and gauges the social, commercial, and personal implications of tomorrow's technology. Along the way he identifies the key, and unsuspected bottlenecks that will restrain our progress, the threats with which we'll have to deal, and weighs the effects of information processing in IT, biotechnology, nanotechnology, and new frontiers beyond this. This startling keynote will shake your preconceptions about the future ahead of us, and help you re-evaluate your strategy for tomorrow.
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Numinous Technology: Lurking Hazards, Hidden Significance
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Computers have shrunk from behemoths that filled entire buildings and cost millions of dollars to nifty toys that cost hundreds. And the sociological, commercial, and strategic implications of this revolution go 'way beyond the obvious technological impacts. The downstream effects on corporate organization, management, HR, purchasing, and most other organizational activities will be dramatic. The effects on culture and society will be pronounced, and of a nature that many will find threatening. And the consequences for the power structures of governments and organizations will be far-reaching. More than just a review of technology toys and trinkets, this keynote looks at the underlying implications of technology, and how it is changing our actions, our assumptions about the way the world works, the way we interact with each other, and even the way we think.
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