Technology for Tomorrow’s World is subject of Keynote Address at Productronica 2007

Prof. Franz Josef Radermacher, head of the Research Institute for Application-Oriented Knowledge Processing (FAW/n) and Professor for Informatics at Ulm Uni-versity will present this year’s keynote address: Globalization, Information Society, Sustainable Development - What are the Challenges ahead? Prof. Radermacher is in great demand for his views on topics such as globalization, innovation, the effects of technology and sustainable development. He has PhDs in mathematics and eco-nomics and is one of the guiding intellectual forces of the Global Marshall Plan Initia-tive. Its goal is to create a binding global framework for an ecologically and socially compatible global economy to harmonize the interests of business with the environ-ment, society and culture.

Prof . Radermacher will analyze current developments such as population growth, social tensions in the global society, cultural conflicts and the aggravation of the worldwide ecological situation as well as illustrate the special role of electronics, computers and networks as the nervous system of the super organism humanity. He will also provide a few future scenarios: the collapse of the biosphere, the “Brazil-ianization” of society and finally the balance. He will describe a possible solution in the form of first steps in the direction of implementing an eco-social global economy with the Global Marshall Plan.

Prof. Radermacher was awarded the Planetary Consciousness Prize in 2004 for exemplary life with consciousness of global responsibility. Former prizewinners in-clude prominent people such as Nelson Mandela, Kofi Annan and Mikhail Gor-bachov. He also received the Salzburg State Prize for Futurology in 2005. In June of this year, Prof. Radermacher was awarded the Vision Award as one of fifteen visionaries for a better world, which Muhammad Yunus, the Nobel Peace Prize win-ner 2006, also received at the same time.