Let's step back and get the bird's-eye view.

      For many years, I was a member of GAMMA, an inter-university, inter-disciplinary think tank, based here in Montreal. In that context, you feel like a cerebral James Bond in thought-filled adventures - Mr. think-think write-write rather than kiss-kiss bang-bang or a futuristic Sherlock Holmes dealing with issues of the future rather than mere murders in the past. I won't waste your time recounting The Case of the Missing Predictions, but merely describe the model which emerged from the work on the case.

      The model can be called, somewhat whimsically, The Three Interfaces of Adam, because it can be described in terms of the Christian cosmology.1 Imagine Adam all alone on our planet before it got so complicated. He had to deal only with the natural world - let us call it the ecosphere. Along came Eve and they prospered and multiplied, introducing another great sphere to Adam's environment, consisting of other people - let us call it the sociosphere. As Adam and Eve and their progeny made discoveries about and inventions from their environment, they built up a third great sphere, consisting of person-made things - let us call it the technosphere.