In his 1932 analytical history of the human race Adventure of Ideas, the distinguished mathematician and philosopher Alfred North Whitehead writes that his book's contents are “dictated by the arbitrary limitations of my own knowledge”. Every historical text is inevitably constrained and conditioned by the author's knowledge, his/her access to reliable information, how he/she interprets the information considered. Socrates claimed he knew nothing save his own ignorance. During the early fifteenth century Nicolas da Cusa observed that “the absolute truth is always beyond our grasp”. This publication is a mixed compilation of verifiable facts, extracts and summaries from many sources, together with comments, observations and recommendations inevitably coloured by the author's beliefs, opinions and interpretations.

The foregoing text explores and seeks to explain diverse concepts of development and ‘sustainable development’, a popular term frequently written and spoken with little precise definition of what it is intended to mean. While many social and biological systems remained relatively unchanged over many centuries, modern developments – biotechnological, social, economic, industrial, informational – are changing rapidly. Most such developments are controlled by complex interactions of many variables. Few are susceptible to simple solutions and demand the skills and experience of men and women highly proficient in systems diagnosis and design. Developments progress most effectively when guided by the dictionary definition of ‘development’: “a gradual (and systematic) unfolding”.

No longer can development be measured simply by growth in wealth and prosperity, among national economies by increase in GDP, among commercial companies by rising share prices quoted by stock markets. Development, both national and commercial, entails consideration of human values.