Introduction. Incidents of gun violence in which people are killed, maimed or traumatized are almost universally condemned. The press is full of the depressing stories and statistics, so no need to review them here. Such incidents are typically followed by public expressions of horror, disgust and disbelief. Opinions on the causes and measures to reduce gun violence are far from…
Introduction. Is it a slogan, is it a philosophy? It’s METAVERSE! Presumably meta-universe is meant, but in our busy world contractions rule. Etymology buffs: note that the prefix has a Greek root which means “after.” The ancient Greek philosopher Aristotle was perhaps the first to popularize this prefix with his treatise on Metaphysics, so named because it came after his…
Recently published article: Business is the main driver of social change in the current period, and flexibility and agility are today’s catchwords, taking precedence over continuity. The marketplace puts a premium on short term relations in business since they favor the bottom line. Innovations in management pioneered by large companies since the end of the Second World War, underwritten by…
This presentation (delivered at the SPIE conference in Baltimore, April 20, 2016) concerns the long term effects of information technology on social stability. The central argument is that IT will inevitably reduce employment opportunities and thus contribute to destabilizing the nuclear family.
Just as technological and economic innovations in an earlier period underpinned the evolution of the centralized nation state, current innovations are undermining those same states. The great nation states, despite their military prowess, are doomed like the dinosaurs of old, unable, unwilling or insufficiently nimble to meet the threat to their dominance posed by agile virtual organizations that have no sense of national identity.