Alvin Toffler, author of Future Shock and The Third Wave just released a paper titled, 40 for the next 40, A sampling of the drivers of change that will shape our world between now and 2050. As expected from a futuristic thinker, Toffler provides a plethora of ideas to think about and ruminate on.
There is one idea that Toffler points out that relates to the phenomenon I refer to as Silent Problems (problems that are being avoided, neglected, going unnoticed or are being intentionally silenced) in my book Without Warning. This idea is:
It will be impossible for organizations to hide improper actions:
Rapidly growing amounts of information, and the proliferation of professional/consumer grade tools for analysis and interpretation, mean previously empowered individuals will now be able to see what organizations are doing, and promote that information to others.
Consumer opinion of corporate responsibility practices will influence product/service selection and brand switching.
This obviously doesn’t imply that mankind, nor organizations won’t try to hide improper actions. After all, there will always be a Madoff, a Petters, an Enron and others out there preying on the innocent. For some, it is simply their human nature and their predisposition. And this is not to suggest that even with vast computing power; governments will become smarter, thereby becoming more effective in their vigilance in preventing such wrongdoings. It does suggest that a cat and mouse game where wrongdoers will find it necessary to weave an increasingly complex web of deception in an attempt to stay one step ahead of the Feds will continue into infinity. Which by itself; is a knowledge network of sorts.
In the end, the empowerment of data changes everything. Yet man must take such data and make decisions, and implement actions. Which makes me ponder, will data overwhelm our ability to make decisions and implement actions?
