THE CENTRAL ISSUE
What means can and should our societies adopt to acquire collective wisdom, i.e. the ability to make the best decisions regarding the development and use of new technologies? After a lightning phase of technological development whose consequences we are struggling to measure, this is the question that is being asked today, debated and studied in multiple bodies.

A COMPLEX PROBLEM
A first objective is to assess the short and medium term potential of technologies, and to assess their probable impact, and this in good time. This is all the more difficult as the technologies reinforce and transform each other. But while a fair assessment of facts and possibilities is necessary, wisdom is not limited to this: it requires the balanced consideration of potential risks and benefits, measured against the interests and values of all stakeholders, in the long term.

IN SEARCH OF A METHODOLOGY
What methodology can enable society, and in particular ours, to tend towards this wisdom? What devices, combining foresight, pedagogy, consultation at all relevant levels of social and political organization should be imagined?