Tuesday, March 18, 2014

Edward Jung — Misleading Indicators


Jung doesn't mention it specifically, but the most powerful innovative technology in the digital age that is driving the knowledge revolution is networking, which has made interconnectedness increasingly conscious and intentional and is leading toward what Peter Russell has called "the global brain." It's impossible to a put a numerical value on this in terms of prices that figure toward GDP, even though its high economic value is widely recognized. For one reason, as Jung observes, a great deal of networking and its benefits are  provided at either very low cost or are free. 

Combinatorial growth has long been recognized in biology. Now it is being harnessed through technological innovation affecting global society and the global economy. This is the "big deal" of the digital age and knowledge revolution, even though robotics is getting more of play in the public mindset at the moment. 

Combinatorial growth of knowledge will greatly dwarf robotics in its effect, however, as interconnectedness becomes more deeply appreciated. This will have unprecedented effects of human behavior that can only be barely imagined at present. The potential of the human adaptive rate to go exponential promises extraordinary returns on coordination at the species level. The challenge is to keep the system open and powerful interests have strong political and economic reasons to keep it closed and divided.

Project Syndicate
Misleading Indicators
Edward Jung | Chief Technology Officer at Intellectual Ventures and former Chief Architect at Microsoft

 

2 comments:

Peter Pan said...

If you want innovation, restrict intellectual property. The Open Source movement is demonstrating that they are a competitive alternative to the older way of doing business.

As the author states, new metrics won't allow investors to predict the future.

Tom Hickey said...

I suspect that open networking and open source are going to bury intellectual property. It just won't be competitive anymore. How long this will take is unknowable especially in light of combinatorial growth. You know, like going viral.