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Publisher of THE FUTURIST, Futures Research Quarterly, and Future Survey

Contact: Clifton Coles
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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE 

KINDER, GENTLER BIG BROTHER MAY ENFORCE LAWS

BETHESDA, MD — Imagine getting into a car that won’t start until it verifies you as its owner and checks to see if you are wanted for any driving violations or crimes.

We are on the brink of innovations that will enforce laws and regulations automatically, says Dutch futurist Marcel Bullinga. He foresees a safer world with the advent of these new technologies.

"In the years ahead, technology will provide government and society at large with tools for a safer world and for automatic law enforcement," Bullinga writes in the latest issue of THE FUTURIST. "Permits and licenses will be embedded in smart cars, trains, buildings, doors, and devices."

Government and law enforcement are not the only beneficiaries of these changes. Bullinga envisions instrument systems that can respond to any command or provide information 24 hours a day.

"The intelligent environment is about living and being comfortable and having a nice time and relaxing and resting," he says.

Some of the intelligent environment innovations Bullinga predicts are:

Cigarette machines that won’t dispense products without verifying the customer’s age.

A single multifunctional, all-purpose pass for entry, purchasing, and identification that makes multiple ID and membership cards obsolete.

Smart cards that work with mobile phones to become personal communication control centers, with embedded technologies to check out things like air quality or whether a doctor actually earned the diplomas on the wall.

"Laws will automatically download and distribute themselves into objects in our physical environment, and everything will be regularly updated, just as software is now automatically updated in your desktop computer," writes Bullinga.

Read Marcel Bullinga’s "Intelligent Government: Invisible, Automatic, and Everywhere" in the July-August 2004 issue of THE FUTURIST, available for $4.95 at bookstores and newsstands and from the World Future Society, 7910 Woodmont Ave., Suite 450, Bethesda, MD 20814.

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