Session 1 ideas/questions

• Complex modeling methods for environmental and economic systems might be an interesting place to look for ways of combining variables for technological prognostication
  
• Outline for analytical framework:

Diffusion potential
....people
....politics
....infrastructure
Utility
....narrow/broad
....spin-off/tangent
Resources required/constraints
....money
....law
....physics
....talent
....interest
....warm bodies

• Diffusion of innovation theory is obviously an important element in the ability to manage the change that comes with the implementation of new technology. How do we preemptively prepare ourselves for change on any scale?
  
• So if long-term predition of the impact and possibility of technological advancement and application can be determined to be imprecise to point of not being terribly useful then what are our alternatives for framing futurecasts? How is long-term (or near- or mid-) prognistication (say 20-years or more in the future) of the potential impact of technology useful? Surely there is utility in leveraging both the historical past and our current goals in order to plan how we want to utilize what technology is at hand and evolve or invent new technologies based on our vision for the future. That vision can drive effort today.
• What is/are the most effective balance point(s) between hard data, tough historical analysis, and creativity in their application to visioning?