RATHER THAN regarding technology as a monolith, futurists Joel A. Barker and Scott W. Erickson fracture it into a few major subsystems and then use them to divine the future of technological opportunity. In Five Regions of the Future, they identify the biggest region as "Super Tech," which is about being bigger and better, and includes nuclear power plants and SUVs. "Limits Tech" conserves resources by means of, for instance, birth control and recycling. "Local Tech" thinks small, with technology appropriate to local needs, such as Segway scooters.
