David Chaum

Founder, DigiCash BV

Most Important Technology of the Last 40 Years:

The automated processing of transactions between individuals and organizations. This began with direct-dial telephony, magnetic-stripe cards, bar codes in supermarkets. More recently we've seen the Web and computerized vote counting.

The infrastructure for managing these interactions is becoming ever larger, more interconnected, pervasive, and powerful. The problem is that there are few rules governing the control of information. Individuals, the "data subjects," become like cattle in a feed lot, monitored and controlled through these largely invisible systems.

Most Important Technology for the Coming Decade: These transaction-processing systems will have a dramatic impact one way or the other. One scenario is that the inadequacy of the current paradigm will lead to a meltdown, which will set individual autonomy, freedom, and dignity on an irreversibly erosive course.

The alternative scenario is that a new paradigm takes hold that will allow individuals to enforce a transparent set of rules governing the use of information. The technology exists to do that, but to be effective, it has to be adopted on a large scale.

Technology That has Evolved in a Surprising Way:

I'm a little surprised and disappointed in how difficult it has been to get significant adoption for the new paradigms.