Be ready for disruptive technologies, FOSE keynote speaker says

The future is not what you expect. It is going to be "more uncanny and crazier than anything than you can imagine,” said futurist Thomas Koulopoulos, delivering a keynote address at the FOSE government trade show in Washington, DC.

Cloud computing, for example, is a disruptive technology that is likely to create new forms of intelligence and behavior for government agencies and everyone else, he said.  While many people can imagine changes in technology alone, the difficult part is that technology changes behavior, and those behavior changes are much harder to predict, he said.

The new intelligence being created in the cloud is not just the availability of more data or more information, nor is it just new applications and innovation arising from the Internet, which Koulopoulos referred to as the “primordial soup” of the new intelligence.

The new intelligence will be based on connections, data and human behavior, he said.

“The best assets of the future will be you and me, because our behavior will be so well known,” Koulopoulos said. “Your cell phones will know more about you than any other person or device.”

Government agencies will benefit from the cloud because it provides them flexibility that they can purchase by increments, he said.

“You do not have to purchase the cloud—you can use it to get ideas and influences that are not part of the organization,” Koulopoulos said.

Koulopoulos is president of Delphi Group consulting firm and managing director of Perot Systems’ Thought Leadership practice, and the author of seven books on innovation and management.

FOSE is a production of 1105 Media, parent company to Federal Computer Week.