We are entering the Age of Abundance. Many have a tough time believing how this is going to unfold. There are pieces that are falling into place that are providing insight into what can be possible.
In short, the future will be much larger than it is today. Of course, that is nothing new. Humanity always forged ahead. Much of this is due to the advancement of technology. Presently, we are embarking upon a technological explosion that is going to alter every part of human life.
What was once Sci-Fi is reality only a couple decades later. Many of us remember the original Star Trek series and the communication devices they used. For those of us old enough to remember, flip phones certain were revolutionary at the time. We all could be like Captain Kirk.
Naturally, few of us envisioned the next generation after that, the smartphone. We simply could not comprehend something that advanced. Neither could the writers of Star Trek.
Therefore, we should realize that we tend to underestimate the impact of technology over the longer term.
Unlimited Economy
Here we have another concept that is difficult for people to comprehend. We were reared with a scarcity mindset, especially economically. That is changing however.
Elon Musk, at Tesla's AI day, unveiled the Tesla Robot. This is something that is conceptual and who knows if they will ever bring it to market. The idea is to create a human level bot that is general in nature. Thus, we have a humanoid that was discussed in Sci-Fi for so long.
There was also an idea that he mentioned: the unlimited economy.
It is something that holds some merit, at least conceptually. A robot is the bridge to the digital and physical worlds. So are devices such as 3-D printers. We can see how design happens digitally, which is near unlimited, while the world of atoms is impacted by them.
Consider the idea of tens of millions of general purpose robots being deployed. Obviously, they would take away many jobs, something that is covered extensively in other articles. However, looking beyond that, we can see how economic output can be enormous.
We have to understand that the basic essence of economic activity is labor. It was always at the core of production. For most of humanity's history, labor was human.
Technology was always adding the artificial to labor. We built tools to help us along. This made us more productive. It was true with the shovel, cotton gin, and manufacturing robots.
General purpose robots will take this to the next level. Even if it is 10-15 years away, when they arrive, they will send productivity on a major growth curve.
With a fleet of robots, we can keep expanding them to provide what is needed. Couple this with a technology such as a 3-D printer and we can see how the numbers can change a great deal.
Digitization Creates Abundance
All of this ties into the digitization movement. There is little doubt we excel at generating more productivity. This is the case throughout human history. The last century saw innovations that put this into overdrive.
Unfortunately, we are not very good about the distribution of the gains from said productivity. Instead, we end up with a situation where the wealth becomes increasingly more centralized in the hands of a smaller percentage of the population.
That said, blockchain and cryptocurrency are already changing this. Developed completely in the digital world, they have no existence in the physical. They do, however, impact it tremendously.
With robotics, as much as there are engineering problems on the physical side, the major challenge is software. Training a robot to be general intelligence is, thus far, impossible. Many feel we are getting closer and with all the effort (along with money) going into it, that stands to reason.
It will, nevertheless, be a long process.
Once there is a software breakthrough, we are going to see the digital world take over completely. The physical devices are all going to be run by software, meaning the digital is what will be powering everything. This leads to massive expansion since software advancement is orders of magnitude quicker.
Bits will be leading atoms.
This all equates to abundance. We can see how labor suddenly becomes nearly unlimited. In the digital realm, automation can operate at unfathomable pace and go 24/7. Couple this with output devices that can handle the atom side of the equation and we see how the caps on our system will be removed.
IT Based Sharing Economy
When we put all of this together, we come up with a completely new economic model. It is based upon Information Technology which will ensure expansion. Blockchain and cryptocurrency provide a different "ownership" structure that allows for improved distribution. Instead of a hierarchical system which puts the power at the upper levels, we will see economic activity that is spread horizontally.
The Internet is the model for many other industries. Energy, for example, is starting to see a similar transition. Over the next few decades, we will watch the buildout of the "Internet of Energy". This is the connecting of individual energy nodes to each other, overseen by software, to generate the most efficient use of what is produced.
In this example, we can see how power generation is done locally and shared, as required, by IT. Energy is one of the largest industries we have.
Another benefit to this how we can see how anything can be turned into a productive asset. Tokenization can turn any asset liquid, providing a means to be traded on open markets. This can provide real time price discovery while expanding the wealth of every individual. In turn, this increase the total economic output.
Consider for a minute how many processors each of us presently has. Compare this to 20 years ago. Now consider the future where our clothing, shoes, glassed, appliances, and most everything else we own has a processor in it. Those are money machines in the making.
The world needs processing power, especially as we move closer to the idea of the Metaverse. Cryptocurrency allows people to be incentivized to provide that. We are just starting to understand what this means.
Unlimited Economic Potential
The potential in this model can be seen in companies like Facebook, Amazon, Microsoft, and Google. Whatever one thinks about them, there is little doubt that they "print money". There is a reason they are the most valuable corporations in the world.
All of them operate, primarily, in the digital world. That allows for massive expansion without dealing with many obstacles facing other companies.
People often wonder, can we see a $10 trillion company? Of course we will.
There was a time when a trillion company was something that many thought impossible. However, the tech giants showed how this was not the case.
Cryptocurrency is a $2 trillion industry and it is just getting started. Down the road, with all this technological expansion, we are going to see blockchain and cryptocurrency at the center of it all. This will provide us with an economic foundation that has unlimited potential.
From this perspective, it is easy to see a 10x of the global economy. Automated output is accelerating. The combination of the digital and physical worlds will provide massive increases. history shows the more power our technology becomes, the more gains we get.
With the focus upon expanding our energy production, especially with the use of renewables, we are going to see how this is powered. Solar panels, for example, are plummeting in price while also see breakthroughs in conversation rates. This opens up enormous opportunities for economic growth, especially in those areas which are traditionally lagging financially. Some of the poorest areas in the world tend to have the most sunlight.
Here we can see how things are shifting rather rapidly. A 10x on the global economy is not fat-fetched. We will see a quadrillion dollar economy.
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