One of the areas in which the benefits of careful foresight are most clearly revealed is in relation to new items ‘in the pipeline.’ That is, phenomena that careful environmental scanning suggest will have a range of social impacts. If these impacts are simply allowed to occur, they may well result in a variety of social costs, some of them heavy. On the other hand, if they are acknowledged well before they become unavoidable, this knowledge can often be employed to mitigate the effects or even avoid them entirely….Read more…