Winds of change. The old paradigms on which our lives were once based are being superseded, mainly through the advances of science and technology. We have worked out genetic maps, cloning is now possible, and mother cells, implants, transplants and life expectancy are all on the increase. Space is closer now, and its secrets are within reach of mega telescopes and satellites. The origin of the Universe is being discovered. Communication using laptops and the Internet has opened almost unlimited possibilities for an open, globalized world.

In spite of all this tremendous display of knowledge, one of the most notable paradoxes of our times is the fact that, while we can communicate with somebody in the most remote corner of the earth, as city-dwellers we continue to have huge problems communicating with our neighbours. Each day, we brush past hundreds or thousands of people who pass by us, and we don't emit slightest sound. Anxiety, loneliness and the almost always repressed desire to approach somebody, talk, say anything at all, to start up a conversation so we can feel that we really exist.

- Crisis and changes in the social system.
- Structural dysfunctions.
- Feeling of fear and vulnerability.
- Reconfiguration of the system and relationships with the other, ourselves, and our environment.