The world has entered into a new phase of transformation, obvious to everyone.

Most observers consider the speedup of transport (planes, trains, highways) and the computerized globalization of contacts and communication as two factors of great change, definable by the concise term of "telematic revolution".

The way we approach the next decade, 1997-2007, is to be considered in the light of an historical analysis (over the very long term) and in the context of Franciscan life (austere and poor by free choice).

Therefore we will analyze our habitat and our society according to four subject areas:

a) the changes occurring in the last 30 millennia of history;
b) our current world, challenged by high technology;
c) technological opportunities, managed in a frugal Franciscan style
in favor of "marginal" territories and cultures.
d) A brief outline of application-oriented projects
realized in a close bond between high technology and the regions.

1. A framework for the events of the last 30 millennia of human history (30 th B.C.- 2nd A.D.)

The work of the economic anthropologist Sahlins led us to inte grate socio-economic data of the "stone age" with the most meaningful data of the epoch-making changes that occurred in the first agricultural revolution (8 th -5 th millennia BC) and the second "industrial" revolution in the 18 th century AD. It offers a close analysis of the steps that led the ancestral nomadic culture and the economy based on hunting and gathering to the great transformation of the new productive agricultural technology and to the new social type of 'fortified city'.

The latter were built in fluvial plains of the Fertile Crescent (Mesopotamia-Syria-Palestine-Egypt) thanks to the new forms of 'organized labor'.

Thus we passed from the 'optimum' society of the civilization of hunters and gatherers to a society that was wealthy but, in fact, founded necessarily on the exploitation of a labor force dedicated to irrigation work and to the production of new construction materials (worked in clay).

The Hebrew and Christian Bible can be seen as an xtraordinary book about the contemporary environment and social reality when we understand that the institutions of the 'Shabbath', the 'sabbatical year', and the 'jubilee' were introduced to guarantee human dignity to those who would otherwise the object of total oppression.

In the light of this, the dominion of divine Transcendence can be seen as effectively protecting a humanity that, with the multiplied wealth of the great empires and in the great 'cities', tended to turn in on itself in a wretched and limited management of the economic and socio-religious opportunities.
A reading of the Pentateuch along these lines is useful for modern reality.

2. Today's world, "transformed" by High Technology.

Industrial changes of the 18 th - 19 th century, the acceleration of scientific innovations in the 20 th and, in a completely unique way, the recent turning point of 'global computer science' are ineluctable constituents of contemporary society.

In particular the advent of computerization and the robotization of industrial production lines, make a unique phenomenon accessible:

the return to a model of civil society that provides (as in the stone age preceding the agricultural revolution) a social model based on a reduced commitment to work, balanced by consistent "social contracts" for the redistribution of the enormous wealth and the management of development potential.

What occurred from the 8 th to the 1st millennium before Christ, must necessarily be brought to the attention of humanity today.
There are great dangers and, at the same time, immense opportunities induced by rapid social changes, e.g. the industrial revolution:

We can self-destruct in ever greater conflicts (between North and South, between rich countries and those below minimum living standards) or we can initiate a wise distribution of a wealth that in the future will be multiplied by industrial robotics.
As much as we rebel against such transformations, their advance is inevitable.

In fact, on the contrary, thanks to just these technological opportunities, contemporary man can, with great effort, construct the premises for a truly dignified and just society.
This will be described in the next section.

3. Franciscan poverty and the socially constructive management of technologies

The element "poverty and austerity", which characterizes the Franciscan-derived model, gives pause for thought as we enter the technological society.

It should be remembered how the poor of humanity, present both in great cities and in rural settlements, are at the center of an attitude of respect, courtesy, and concrete aid in the "Weltanschauung" of Francis of Assisi.

If one wants to enter into direct relations with the hypertechnological transformations of the XXI century, the Franciscan way of life offers several proposals.

3.1 High technology must become "light", i.e. portable, for it to be used even in isolated or decentralized habitats.

In this direction the Franciscan is in tune with "the people" constantly stimulating both the study of miniaturization of methodologies and projects that are effectively applicable
in marginal environments or to small social groups.

From such a prospective, 'poor' Franciscanism very closely approaches the rigor of aerospace engineering in the style of work, accustomed always to avoid, as far as possible, the waste of resources by rigorously applying experimental methods.

3.2 "Voluntary Franciscan poverty" is a guarantee of the disinterested justice and non-violent control of the complex mechanisms of a new industrial society, always pushed towards the unbalanced desire for profit without end, for unrestrained power and for an elitist culture.

3.3 The Franciscan style of simple concreteness, balanced between life and word, theory and practice, spirituality and socialization, and between industry and solidarity,
allows a new kind of dialogue with society and with the macro-industrial world itself.

3.4 The joyful choice of poverty highlights several paradoxical methodologies that we bring together in a clearly distinct manner:

the behavior of one who is very rich and of one who is voluntarily poor.

For both, work will be organized by a highly rigorous use of time, of means of communication, and of analytical tools.

Like the billionaire, and perhaps even more than he, the poor man cannot afford the least waste of resources (which, moreover, are not his) or the least concession to verbosity and to curiosity.

3.5 Within the millennial historical framework mentioned at the beginning, considered action of ethical value, can be an element of stability and flexibility in the complex society of tomorrow.

Furthermore several schools of social industrial thought, present at all levels in the European Union and in other areas of advanced development, agree on the relevance of values that guarantee the most important variable in the processes transforming the world:

the human beings, both as individuals and together.

4. The projects

One strategy for the undertaking called "InGentibus" provides for three great areas of operational priority which constitute our initial choices.

The strategy of InGentibus starts from a view of the world as complex and simple at the same time:

complex in its cultures, its continents, nations and regions;

simple in the interactions of information and socio-economic relations, as well as in the new awareness of global citizenship.

Our planning of initiatives in the regions today, has three areas of concrete priority to examine:

• the hydraulic sector, or projects for a culture of water with applications for the spheres of restoration (isotopic analyses of mortar and pigments), environmental protection, an innovative, light micro-industry for:
  • the production of building components;
  • robotic intervention in several repetitive stages of craft work;
• the sector of collecting and modifying images, using technology software including neural technology and fuzzy logic with application-oriented outcomes in the fields of historical-archaeological culture, art cataloguing, speeding up of feasibility projects, and in the diagnostic stage.
• PicoWorld is the vital part, and the heart of our contribution to the future of society: the whole technological world, reduced one million times (: nano) in its dimensions, is easily replicable and transportable, thus becoming - in some cases- something that can be easily understood and managed by ordinary individuals.
  

5. Conclusion

One hears proposals for various kinds of "Quality" from all sides (total quality, the quality of life, product quality, etc.):

If we had to pick up on this kind of concept we could summarize the Franciscan presence in the world of "hypertechnologies" as "Paradoxical Quality" weak in structure, strong in method and, at least in intention, intelligent.