  In this paper we present the Braid Monodromy Type (BMT) of curves and
surfaces; past, present and future. The BMT is an invariant that can
distinguish between non-isotopic curves; between different families of surfaces
of general type; between connected components of moduli space of surfaces and
between non symplectmorphic 4-manifolds. BMT is a finer invariant than the
Sieberg-Witten invariants. Consider 2 simply connected surfaces of general type
with the same Chern classes. It is known that if they are in the same
deformation class, they are diffeomorphic to each other. Are there computable
invariants distinguishing between these 2 classes? The new invariant, proposed
here, is located between the 2 classes. In this paper we shall introduce the
new invariant, state the current results and pose an open question.
