Technology in a cold climate: intelligent public services and an interconnected innovative and sustainable society

We suggest that in difficult times, the most valuable technological innovations are those that are versatile, purposive and enable society to become parsimonious and decentralised. The UK faces severe challenges that manifest themselves in the short term in a cold economic climate, in which unemployment is high and a large government deficit threatens to reduce public sector spending. Furthermore, in the medium term other trends such as a rising, ageing and unsustainably developing population are likely to lead to global problems: food, water and energy shortages. The effects of anthropogenic climate change will almost certainly compound these threats. Together such challenges point towards an uncertain period in which resources are scarce and the threat of hardship looms large.