Jeremy Rifkin, generally respected (AFAIK) author of books on large world trends in “the economy” released a new book today titled: The Zero Marginal Cost Society: The Internet of Things, the Collaborative Commons, and the Eclipse of Capitalism
Here’s an excerpt from the book. Generally supports the theory that the changes from powerful new communications technology are just getting started, and that we “haven’t seen nothin yet”…so to speak. Tranformations to come, Rifkin and others, and PSA, suggest, will tax our ability to envision change.
Sometimes this recalls another period of great change in the 60’s, when there were many pronouncements about how “everything was going to be different”, and there were many visionaries writing books such as Rifkin does here.
Some from that era, like Marshall McLuhan, Ivan Illitch, Buckminister Fuller, Alvin Toffler, Stewart Brand, Nicholas Negroponte and others turned out to be “right on”. To say nothing of those visionaries in educational reform and human potential movement who are also useful resources for today’s changes.
It’s also possible to get things totally wrong in visionary endeavors. Time will tell, and we all will play a role in what grows and becomes from this present moment…needless to say, we are not passive recipients of the future; we create it.