Our threat is from the convergence of a set of technological innovations that are and will increasingly have an enormous impact on the nature of work, economic and social inequality and the existence of the middle classes that are so vital to the durability of Western democracy.  The fact is that developed nations’ economies such as found in Western Europe and the US are facing a convergence of technologies that fit into Joseph Schumpeter’s idea of “creative destruction” but without the “creative” phase of economic rebirth. The forces and technologies pushing us in this direction are relentless.  In a globalized market economy where power and authority are dispersed across borders with nations holding incompatible interests and agendas and policy dictated by unaccountable multilateral institutions we lack the ability to impose limits on what is occurring even if we wanted to.