Where are we heading? Stripped of all the hype and fantasy - where really is the world economy set to take us by 2040? Those of us alive today are on an extraordinary course: For several decades our future has largely been determined by a handful of relatively-obscure trends that together generate the awesome propulsion of a High-Tech engine that is launching the international community on a voyage into completely unfamiliar territory. But where will we all end up? Based on unparalleled insights into what organizations across the globe are actually doing, for the first time the world's foremost expert on the hidden inner-workings of society explains in simple and accessible language exactly where the most deeply-established trends are taking us. How, despite claims that its accelerating progress is not sustainable for much longer, Digitization is on an inexorable course to a mind-blowing society of virtual-assistants, robot cars, cyborgs and everything on-the-record. And how Networking will combine with Digitization to lead by 2040 to computers capable of human-like interaction and an internet a billion times more powerful than today's. Dr. Scott-Morgan reveals how the Miniaturization trend offers nanotech breakthroughs ranging from cancer treatments to quantum computing - but not, as has often been claimed, Star-Trek Replicators or the threat of 'grey goo'. And he shows how exponential Simulation will support fundamental and sweeping advances that lead to almost limitless electricity and maybe almost limitless life-extension. Our world is set for a Global Renaissance. However, the backdraft of the High-Tech launch engine is also stirring up a turbulence of unintended consequences that threaten to disrupt our trajectory. Rather than Global Renaissance, we would then enter Global Chaos. Yet these are not ordinary times. In the startling conclusion to his book, Dr. Scott-Morgan reveals how in only the last couple of years a brand new exponential trend has begun to emerge out of the turbulence. In terms of influencing our destination - whether we end up in a Global Renaissance or in Global Chaos - it is that trend that will be the most important one of all. NOTE: This is the companion volume to 'The Reality of Global Crises' by the same author.

What is going on? Consider the last few years: The global financial system was brought to its knees; the creditworthiness of the world's remaining superpower was downgraded; crises within the Eurozone escalated to threaten the entire world economy; many Arab countries became increasingly unstable, and for a few days arsonists and looters took control of British city streets; concealed abuses by Roman Catholic priests shook faith in some parts of the Establishment; concealed abuses by tabloid journalists, politicians and the police shook faith in much of the rest; meanwhile, governments around the globe appeared powerless to prevent collapsing fish-stocks, depleting water reserves, uncontrolled species-extinctions, escalating oil prices and growing threats of climate change. Such proliferating crises appear worryingly random and uncontrollable. Yet they are not. In reality, all of these global crises are indirectly linked. In this groundbreaking book, the foremost authority on the hidden inner-workings of society reveals how today's onslaught of apparently separate international backlashes is in fact an unintended consequence of living in an increasingly complex and interconnected world - ultimately they are side-effects of the accelerating growth of hugely-beneficial trends relating to High-Tech. As a result, the crises are set to escalate. And, stuck with existing global governance, world-leaders will struggle to make much difference. Working through all the major examples of growing crises, Dr. Scott-Morgan builds up progressive insights into how our global economy really works, which of the emerging crises are most dangerous, and how the main types can best be handled. Finally, in a world-shattering conclusion he demonstrates why existing government bodies alone are incapable of preventing a progressive slide toward global chaos, and how it will more likely fall to a combination of business-leaders and members of the general public to save the day as global governance realigns from Territory to Industry with the rise of Global Guilds and Boundaryless People-Power. NOTE: This is the companion volume to 'The Reality of our Global Future' by the same author.