The recent transition into the third millennium was the subject of numerous predictions. Some forecasts were centuries old, while others were more recent. Many of the predictions were quite fanciful and benign, and included such visions as cities in the sky, wrist watch radios and a flying car in every garage. Others were gloomier and foretold of great disasters including the timeless classic the end of the world.
As the new millennium approached the prediction that garnered the most notoriety was based on a technology gaffe that came to be known as the Year 2000 or Y2K bug. The Y2K bug referred to the potential of computerized items to fail based on programming deficiencies that compromised their ability to recognize new millennium dates. Left unchecked, it was widely held that numerous disasters, including the failure of common appliances, the crash of the world monetary system and the unintentional launch of nuclear weapons was possible. In the end, whether a result of outstanding preparation or simply too much hype, the Y2K bug did not bite.
However, lost in the hoopla of the changing calendar was a historic occurrence that in a very real sense, did indeed signal the end of the world – or at least the world as we knew it.  That occurrence was <strong>the <em>loss-of-information-control
The Loss of Information Control
Over the millennia technology advances have enabled information to be transferred from the unmovable media of cave walls, to stone tablets, to paper, to impulses of light capable of being transmitted to the moon in little more than a second. Each advance has seen greater amounts of information crammed into smaller and more portable formats.
But, while advances in information technology have made information more powerful and more portable, such advances have also served to make information much easier to access, distribute and steal. As a result, over time information became more difficult to control, and increasingly available and accessible to the masses.
The trend toward more powerful, more portability, and more transferable information continued until finally, it became clear that in this period surrounding the end of the twentieth century and the beginning of the twenty-first, the ability to control information had been greatly compromised.
Increasingly, even sensitive and proprietary information has found its way into the public domain. In fact, it is more accurate to say that the public domain has found its way to the information. This has proven true whether the information is copyrighted materials such as movies, music or software, plans for making a bomb, or details about the personal and private lives of ordinary individuals or dignitaries like the President of the United States.
The actions of businesses and institutions all around the world are helping to ensure that the movement toward greater information availability and accessibility continues. Each year more and more products, technologies, and services are being developed and offered to bring computing and information access to people in almost any location and situation. Whether you are driving, hiking, or flying there is now, or soon will be, a product that you can use to access information (news, e-mail, the Internet, etc.) right on the spot.
Of course, in and of itself, widespread distribution of information is benign and, perhaps to most people, preferred. However, the increasingly open accessibility of information represents a significant environment change for mankind.
The loss-of-information-control is <em>the</em> pivotal event of an environment evolution <em>thousands of years</em> in the making. The unfettered proliferation of information changes the intelethic environment of <em>competition-based-on-information control </em>that had been the basis for human behavior since before the development of the earliest civilizations 10,000 years ago. In fact, civilization as we know it, was created upon the intelethic environmental foundation of competition-based-on-information-control.</span>
Indeed, information control comprised half of the foundation (the other half being competition) upon which civilization was first created. And what happens to a structure when its foundation is removed? It falls. And, in fact that is what has occurred.
The unfettered proliferation of information access and availability has effectively separated <em>control</em> from <em>information</em>, and has therefore signaled the end of the world as we knew it before the new millennium. Today, with tight-fisted control over information being less feasible, individuals, businesses and governments are finding that the tried and true practices of the past are no longer effective.  As a consequence, the world is becoming more volatile as the effects of our changing civilization resonate throughout the globe.
The significance of this environmental transition cannot be overstated. It is perhaps the greatest survival challenge mankind has ever faced. Already, a great amount of uncertainty has been introduced into the world. This uncertainty is due to the fact that our worldwide institutions, and in particular our governments, were established and continue to operate based on rules that have been invalidated by the inability to control information access. Â Given that fact, there are no stable institutions the world over, from the smallest nation to the largest power. Â Every government is now battling for its survival. And some (most notably the U.S.) are beginning to get desperate. It is hard to imagine a more serious situation.</span></p>
