Description:This is a wonderfully stimulating collection of offerings on the interplay between human collectives and the "information age." Inevitably, some insights are more gripping than others--but each essay by the more than fifty futurists (for want of a better term) engaged in this effort is worth reading. While we may think we're frightfully clever and sophisticated when it comes to our "information age," it struck this reader that, in relation to information exploitation, we're at a point equivalent to the mid-seventeenth century in the physical sciences: We've gotten some of the basic parameters figured out, but haven't yet begun to understand their myriad applications. This volume is stimulating, useful, sometimes brilliant, and always worth turning over the page. Very highly recommended for those involved in intelligence, government or the media--as well as for citizens concerned about our collective future. Brain food for grown-ups.