It was talking about megatrends. Finnish Futurologist Mika Mannermaa (http://fi.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mika_Mannermaa) was summing up 10 megatrends that will happen in the near future. So five years on, or half a decade's time, here is the list of what he researched on and came up with:
1) The struggle between various ideological social and cultural models for global influence. The American neo-liberal market economy, the European model and Asian model of the China-Singapore-Korea-Japan axle will compete among themselves for global influence in the world economy.
2) The technological development of the information society will rise to a new level where the focus is on consumers' needs, services and content.
3) The Woody Allen society. In the 24/7 future, the social concept of time will change. Our usage of time will be more independent. The pace of our lives will be dictated less by external requirements and restrictions.
4) Suburbanisation. Soon we will all live in the urban areas, centres or their immediate vicinity. Sparsely populated areas will be vacated.
5) Senior citizens will rule. The baby boomers will become significant consumers. They will behave in unexpected ways, for instance, setting up new companies at the age of 65.
6) The John Wayne society. More people will operate as wandering professionals of the information society, working alone or as a company with a few partners rather than seeking work for large hierarchical organisations.
7) From majorities to minorities. Majorities will disappear. We will shift to an era of small heterogenic tribes and virtual networks. (Facebook!)
8) The complex risk society. The information society will become more complicated, including all of the material risks of the industrial society but also a growing set of immaterial risks. An electrical blackout or the collapse of an information system may paralyse all of the central activities of a society.
9) Globalisation includes various phenomena and uncertainty factors that occur at different rates. The vulnerability of the world economy, cultural conflicts, environmental and development problems of developing a worldwide democratic global administration, which has so far only been realised in some countries. There will be a lack of universal rules of the game.
10) The importance of information and communications technology in society will grow. The rising new technologies will be biotechnology, material technology, and nanotechnology.
So far, what is your mind telling you from the current world affairs, events and economic situations?
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