  FuturICT is one of six proposals currently being considered for support
within the European Commission's Flagship Initiative (see Box 1). The vision of
the FuturICT project is to develop new science and new information and
communication systems that will promote social self-organization,
self-regulation, well-being, sustainability, and resilience. One of the main
aims of the approach is to increase individual opportunities for social,
economic and political participation, combined with the creation of collective
awareness of the impact that human actions have on our world. This requires us
to mine large datasets ("Big Data") and to develop new methods and tools: a
Planetary Nervous System (PNS) to answer "What is (the state of the world)..."
questions, a Living Earth Simulator (LES) to study "What ... if ..." scenarios,
and a Global Participatory Platform (GPP) for social exploration and
interaction.
