OUR MISSION
Founded in 1989 by futurist John L. Petersen, The Arlington Institute is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit research institute that specializes in thinking about global futures and trying to
influence rapid, positive change. We encourage systemic, non-linear approaches to planning and believe that effective thinking about the future is enhanced by applying newly emerging technology. Therefore, we strive to be agents of change by creating intellectual frameworks & tool-sets for understanding the transition in which we are living.

TAI believes that we are living in an era of global transition, to a degree that our species
has never seen before. The exponential increase of human knowledge, and the
acceleration of its application through technology, is propelling humanity towards a new
era of thought and endeavor. Society, science, ecology and commerce are converging at
the intersection of danger and opportunity. A complexity and unpredictability that is
beyond our past experience characterize the challenges at hand. If humanity's preferred
future is to be realized, new tools for strategic planning and problem solving must be
invented and combined. We must think differently.

We have made it our mission to help facilitate this transition, and to connect and associate with like-minded people so that we may together embrace the opportunities of this future. In the broadest sense, we help leadership from all sectors chart the most direct course to preferred futures by:

• Sweeping in real-time thousands of Net and News sources

• Tracking and evaluating major scientific, technological, social, demographic, and
environmental forces that drive change

• Conducting future-focused studies and initiatives

• Exploring how trends might crosscut in significant ways

• Cataloging potential 'wildcards' - low probability high impact events

• Helping leadership translate information - from data to scenarios - into mental maps by which to guide decision making and build sophisticated organizational visions

A TIME OF IMMENSE OPPORTUNITY
We are attempting to produce a historic breakthrough in the ability to anticipate and
understand the future by building a world-class combination of extraordinary analytical
technology, a core group of very creative analysts, and an internationally distributed
network of thinkers and resource people. This is a radical new model for a "think tank"
that focuses upon the fact that TAI as an information/idea enterprise that exists in an era
of unprecedented advances in information technology. This revolution is eliminating the
historic constraints of geography and location and makes it possible, for the first time in
history, perhaps, to predict the social behavior of large groups of people to certain types
of events.

UNDERSTANDING
As we try to aggregate information and ideas surrounding some of the world’s biggest
problems, i.e. rapid climate change, peak oil, pandemic disease, lack of potable water,
etc., we have developed two modeling technologies that illuminate problems, scenarios,
strategies and policies in revolutionary ways.

DIANE (Digital Analysis Environment). TAI has developed an automated tool called DIANE (Digital Analysis Environment). DIANE represents the beginning of a revolution in what TAI calls “anticipatory analysis” – the process of analysis with the goal of anticipating the emergence of specific futures. In the broadest sense, the DIANE tool can help leadership from all sectors chart the most direct course to preferred futures by:

• Sweeping in real-time thousands of Net and News sources

• Tracking and evaluating major scientific, technological, social, demographic, and environmental forces that drive change

• Conducting future-focused studies and initiatives

• Exploring how trends might crosscut in significant ways

Morphological Analysis (MA). MA is a combination of a software tool and
facilitation process that helps groups deal with ‘Wicked’ Problems. These
problems are so large as to be indefinable by current methods. The ability to
define, strategize and set policy using this method is the most comprehensive
method we have found. We are working with the Swedish Defense Agency on
developing this method and implementing it in the US.

Web Site: www.arlingtoninstitute.org