What is really happening while traditional business strategists rearrange the deck chairs on their economic Titanic?
Centralization
Search infrastructure, blockchains, cybersecurity, streaming, and telecommunications infrastructure will join the group of essential utilities regulated by governments. These new “utilities” will require clearer and cleaner definition and regulation. Free market monopolistic vendors like Google and Facebook will be coopted by nation states.
Utilities will be regulated across national boundaries. It is not just oil, but all utilities tied to essential resources, such as water access, and cybersecurity with cross-national impact on ecosystems that will be managed and regulated by multi-national agreements.
Distribution of raw materials from their source of origin will mean greater centralization of major distribution hubs like ports and airports. (see 3 under decentralization).
The “middles” in terms of “middle markets” and roles of “middlemen” and distribution will become increasingly obsolete.
Decentralization
Education and training will be decentralized. Search and translation utilities will reduce the impediments of location or language. Iterative proofs of competence will displace centralized Universities. Ad hoc peer to peer learning groups and classes will emerge as the primary learning modality. Certifications and degrees will be issued by consensus of members of social networks.
Transaction aggregators like banks will be less central to business processes as the blockchain eliminates middlemen or brokers and the sharing economy enables algorithmically managed neural-like networks to leverage distribution channels.
Localized distribution hubs will facilitate localized manufacturing. 3 D printing and robotics will enable decentralization of manufacturing.
Localization
The “buy local” movement and localization of agriculture will expand to absorb labor resources freed up by shrinking transactional monopolies and centralized manufacturing sectors.
Local crafts, cultural artifacts, foods, music, norms and morays will increase and spread.
Definitions of and boundaries between religious, ethnic, and racial groups will dissipate in some localities and become more defined and restricted in other localities. Neighborhoods will reflect lifestyles and lifestyles will be self-selected.
Neighborhoods within localities will become more “gemeinschaft” like (village like) due to asset sharing of tangible assets like cars and homes and offices. Neighborhoods will also evolve through sharing computing resources, time (labor), child care, and other intangible assets.
Status, prestige, and measures of life satisfaction will shift from accumulation and consumption to collaboration and contribution.