Technologies and the future

Abstract

Automation, worldwide networking and globalisation are the buzzwords of our times. Social processes in all areas are becoming more intricate and less transparent, as most individuals in modern industrial societies would agree. By stepping out of nature into the increasingly anthropogenic environment of our culture, humankind has taken control of its own social development, and in the longer term probably even of its evolutionary development. In times when individuals find it difficult to comprehend the full scale of the developments that are happening in business, science and society, the positive and negative aspects of mastering this challenge are becoming increasingly obvious. Is the growing complexity of modern society truly inevitable? To put it succinctly: yes. © 2009 Springer Berlin Heidelberg.