Sifting Trends Out of Clouds of Data

The growing complexity of the world is compounded by increasing amounts of data, much of which we are producing ourselves—and about ourselves—simply by using technologies. This means not only that there’s more to know about the world, but also that it’s harder to understand.

The vast world of online social networking, plus the use of location-aware cell phones and other devices, is yielding a particularly rich “cloud” of information about us. Marketers could ultimately use “cloud mining” to predict consumer behavior, for instance, and employers can better monitor their workers, says business futurist Erica Orange. As well, we could be enabling a vast, invisible army of “Big Brothers” to spy on us. See “Mining Information from the Data Clouds."

Because the failure to understand where trends may take us could lead to global catastrophe, human expertise and multiple points of view are both very much in demand.

For this reason, THE FUTURIST called on several policy experts to focus on the key ideas from the November 2008 National Intelligence report, “Global Trends 2025: A Transformed World.” In our special section “Assessing Global Trends for 2025” FUTURIST senior editor Patrick Tucker interviews former U.S. Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich; U.S. Congressman Dennis Kucinich; Elaine C. Kamarck, a senior policy adviser for Democrat Al Gore's 2000 presidential campaign; and Peter Schiff, economics adviser to Republican Ron Paul's 2008 presidential campaign.

Data analysis, you may be surprised to learn, can also be beautiful. The high-speed imaging facilities at Argonne National Laboratory yielded the stunning photographs of an exploding supernova gracing our back-page Visions feature, “Visualizing Data,”—Cynthia G. Wagner

Managing Editor

cwagner@wfs.org