Biography
Chris Peterson writes and lectures on new developments in technology and society
that will change the context for making business decisions. As Executive Director
of Foresight Institute [ http://www.foresight.org/index.html ] in Palo Alto, California,
she forecasts the effects of technologies ranging from advanced hypertext publishing
[ http://www.foresight.org/WebEnhance/index.html ] to nanotechnology [ http://nano.xerox.com/nano
]. She advises individuals and companiesfrom start-ups to the Fortune 100on strategies
for success in an environment of rapid technological change.
With husband K. Eric Drexler [ http://www.foresight.org/FI/Drexler.html ] and partner
Gayle Pergamit, Chris coauthored Unbounding the Future: the Nanotechnology Revolution
[ http://erg.ucd.ie/arupa/references/unbounding.html ] (1991, Morrow), known as
"the nanotechnology book to give your mom."
Chris's role as hostess-to-hightech is described in The Tomorrow Makers [ http://www.hu.mtu.edu/ciwic/94/book_reviews/the_tomorrow_makers.txt
] and Nano [ http://bubblemouth.pathfinder.com/twep/Library/Science_Nature_Pets/Nano_Cat.html
]. More recently, she directs these skills to holding conferences [ http://www.foresight.org/Conferences/MNT05/Nano5.html
] and events [ http://www.foresight.org/SrAssoc/97MiniGathering.html ] for her favorite
foundations, Foresight and IMM [ http://www.imm.org/ ].
In their abundant free time, Chris and partner Gayle Pergamit have written another
book (on the DesignShop process developed by MG Taylor [ http://www.mgtaylor.com/
]) and run a small pseudo-business called "Get-a-Life Services" for distracted Silicon
Valley wonders who can't remember to pay their taxes or go on vacations. Would-be
clients keep pleading with them to make this a serious business; Chris is trying
to transfer it to someone else so that she too can be a client.
Prior to her involvement with nanotechnology, Chris studied chemistry at MIT, worked
on Boston's Route 128 as a semiconductor [ http://www.alphaind.com/index.htm ] engineer
and product manager, and cut her activist teeth in promoting space development to
help solve environmental problems on Earth. She still serves on the Board of the
National Space Society [ http://www.nss.org/ ], working with their Molecular Manufacturing
Shortcut Group [ http://www.islandone.org/MMSG/ ].
And before MIT, while growing up in various parts of upstate New York, she endured
so much snow that she vowed "I will never shiver again," hence her present residence
in the pleasant land of Silicon Valley..
Last updated 23June97
Copyright 1997