ABSTRACT
The chapters in this volume help us reflect on convergence in smart and distinctive ways. From the outset we can see that the very idea of convergence is attractive because it offers us the chance to think about innovation and technical change as occurring in a space. We all learned from studying Euclid in school that non-parallel lines must ultimately converge. Technological convergence is thus about the relative orientation of different trajectories and their tendency to come together and meet in one place. Seen in this way, part of the appeal of the idea of convergence is that it opens the possibility of hastening convergence or of getting to the point of convergence first. If technological trajectories are moving towards each other, then the innovators, clever investors and shrewd science-policy champions will be aiming to be the earliest to benefit from an upcoming convergence.
