Is it our Job to Forecast the Future or to Fashion it? Herbert A. Simon Richard King Mellon University Professor of Computer Science and Psychology, Carnegie Mellon University We must look ahead at today’s radical changes in technology, not just as forecasters but as actors charged with designing and bringing about a sustainable and acceptable world. New knowledge gives us power for change: for good or ill, for knowledge is neutral. The problems we face go well beyond technology: problems of living in harmony with nature, and most important, living in harmony with each other. Information technology, so closely tied to the properties of the human mind, can give us, if we ask the right questions, the special insights we need to advance these goals.