Giving thought to tomorrow

The research will look at areas that once seemed too wild to comprehend

If you are a close follower of the forecasts of futurologists, you are probably disappointed not to be wearing your robotic exo-skeleton while flying your hover car using only the power of thought via your brain-computer interface implant.

Many who try to predict tomorrow’s innovations tend to come up with some pretty kooky ideas, but at the highest levels of public administration, there appears to be a growing realisation that our technological future will be about more than just whizzy gadgets and sci-fi equipment.

The EU-funded programme to investigate the ethical and social implications of emerging technologies shows just how increasingly radical the influence of our industry is going to become.

The researchers will be evaluating areas that once seemed too wild to comprehend, such as emotional computing ­ systems that can identify our emotions and respond appropriately.

The dilemmas that such developments will bring are even harder to fathom than the technology itself. But the past few years have been full of political and social controversies that would have been barely conceivable were it not for recent innovations.

Think of the debates about young people posting personal information on Facebook, or of government losing huge amounts of our data, or advertisers trying to record our web surfing habits. The pace of change is far beyond what politicians, sociologists and business leaders have been able to deal with.

So it is right that we take a step back and look not only at what the forthcoming output of research and development labs will allow us to do, but also what it means for us as a society and individuals.

One of the great challenges for IT leaders is in managing change. The changes and challenges ahead could be exponentially greater, and the output of the UK-led research project will be fascinating and relevant for us all.