The Strategic Technology Institute is a virtual ‘think tank’ that investigates the business and public policy issues raised by science and engineering. STI is also a global network of independent technology assessment consultants and public policy futurists that provide advisory services, product marketing consulting, business development services, a speakers’ bureau, focused research, and custom publishing. STI was established by Silicon Valley veteran and Big 4 consultant, Blake White, as an outlet for his academic research and personal commitment to exploring the social implications of technical innovation.

Through the intellectual stimulation of like minds, STI hopes to create a more holistic “end” to the technological “means” that so often dominate life in high-tech society. Understanding the history, belief systems, ethics, shared assumptions, economic shifts, political context, class/race struggles, and the critical adoption rate associated with major scientific discoveries and their related technological uses will allow the engineering profession to develop an approach to technology assessment that is balanced with a humanist worldview. At a minimum, STI proposes an approach by technologists that is more well rounded, socially aware, and culturally sensitive. STI hopes to catalyze a whole new approach to technology assessment -- one that considers context and condition on a par with discovery and tools.

This art form can be inherently superior to the sterile analysis of trends typically used by scientists, technologists, economists, and pundits in general. It will take into consideration the emotional and cultural factors inherent in the “ends” that justify the technological “means.” In the process, we will be able to minimize the differences between technology and ethics, culture and tools. We may even be able to usher in a new age of complementary thinking styles based on harmony between tangible and intangible, fact and faith, optimism and fate.

Because business opportunities, competitive threats, and social dislocations are often caused by the confluence of several technologies and market trends, STI takes an interdisciplinary approach that gives corporations and institutions the advantage of experienced world-class industry and scientific talent for either retained advice or flexible project-oriented assignments, without the ongoing cost and commitment of in-house staff.