ABSTRACT
Technology is rapidly evolving around us, and if we believe in the theory of accelerating returns, the pace of evolution will only increase. Ray Kurzweil, a serious contemporary futurist, expects that “measured by today’s rate of progress … we won’t experience 100 years of technological advance in the twenty-rst century; we will witness on the order of 20,000 years of progress” (2006, p. 11). His prediction, which most experts conceptually acknowledge, is based on a key observation: Information technology (IT) is not only powerful in itself; it also facilitates the success and convergence of other powerful technological domains such as nanotechnology, genetic engineering, and robotics. Technological change is like a raging river into which individuals, companies, and societies dive enthusiastically, but then have trouble staying aoat.
