Futurologists have often predicted a post-industrial society in which the majority of the working population will be concerned with the handling of information in one form or another. The rise of information technology has created such a situation in much of the developed world, while the people of developing countries still lack access to vital information.

The developed world, however, is now confronted with serious structural challenges which have resulted from the information explosion and which will be intensified by changes in technology which can be predicted to occur over the next decade or so. At the same time these will provide opportunities for the developing world.

The Race to the Intelligent State describes how information infrastructures are built, how the key technologies will develop over the next few years, what the real results of the information revolution will be and what challenges lie beyond.