The Age of Aquarius

What would the World look like if everyone in the Planet could work where they are most talented? How bigger the Gross Domestic Product would be? How happier would people be? What would quality of life look like as compared to the actual reality? I have no measurable answer for any of those questions. What I am certain of is that it would be a lot bigger, a lot happier and a lot better than now. It is one of those “truths that are hold to be self-evident”, as Thomas Jefferson quoted.

During thousands of years humanity has been focused on the wealth that arises from the environment – physical resources – or whatever visible goods and means of production it has been able to create. Now we are coming to see that the real value creation is inside people themselves, in what looks not visible: creativity - the ability to think, understand, and come up with something different. 

That knowledge in itself becomes not only a resource, but the resource, as Peter Drucker states in his book “The Post Capitalist Society”, is driving and will continue to drive the focus of humankind from visible resources to invisible resources. If all the potential talent existing at one moment in the World could be unraveled and put to work at its best, in a global, networked, and collaborative basis, creativity, innovation and value creation would boost. We have no idea what that would look like, but undeniably it would be a lot better than what we have now. Networked and global collaboration would also constitute a driver for peaceful relations, since everyone would see clear that all are codependent from one another for the benefit of each. It is Nash’s equilibrium but in a “coompetitive environment” – one where competition and collaboration go hand in hand for a win/win relationship. It is Metcalfe’s Networks Law, but applied to Society instead of telecommunications.

The fact that knowledge is the leading resource must change the focus of all public, corporative or organizational policies, since knowledge comes from people, well trained, well motivated and working where they are most talented - something that Sir Ken Robinson calls “the element”.  Under these circumstances, the greatest waste of resources in the world is the huge amount of talent in stock that is not being used, be it because people do not work where they are best talented, or be it because they are poor and have no opportunities to educate themselves properly. Poverty becomes not only an injustice, but a measure of economic stupidity. All that talent not being put to work are cuatrillions of dollars kept under the pillow.

This new age needs a new education model. What Sir Ken Robinson contents is right: the actual public education model throughout the world is a creation of the enlightment to serve the needs of the industrial revolution. It is inadequate for the Knowledge Society. It will never be able to produce this change of paradigm where everyone is able to develop all the received talents. The technological platform to make that change is available. But there is a big resilience worldwide to make the change. It has worked during more than two hundred years; too many people live of it and by it, and the new paradigms, though clear regarding the “what” are not so clear regarding the “how”. Yet, it must be remembered that it was the same thing when public education came to life.

Knowledge Business, Knowledge economy and Knowledge politics are emerging. There is a worldwide feeling that “something big is going on”.

The Internet economy is thriving: it is growing continuously at two digits every year at a far bigger rate than any emerging economy; it is creating 2.6 new jobs for each one it destroys; it is moving over 8 trillion dollars a year in commerce; it is boosting exports in SMEs. Forty years ago, free trade was an economic theory, but one contested. Half the world relied in central, governmental planning. Today free market is champion. Only, it does not deliver accordingly to what theory says, hence the big financial troubles we are seeing, and the need for more regulations. But inside the Internet economy, it does work: equal opportunities, equal and symmetric information, low barriers of entrance and exit, free concurrence, free trade, and free stuff (doesn´t happen offline) competing with paid for stuff, no monopolies (once you are in: there are, unfortunately, monopolies for access to the Web in many countries)... and no regulations – aside those that deal with cybercrime. That environment has produced the biggest innovation tide ever seen, the fastest market capitalization ever recorded, the most globalized small business expansion ever known of.

The role of the State is being put to test, which is logical, given that the actual role is also a product of the enligthment and the industrial revolution. The global community emerging from the Knowledge Society and the value creation of invisible means of production available throughout the world as if they physically were present in the same place is surpassing the very concept of Nation State that emerged with the upcoming of democracy and industrial revolution.

Knowledge Society is being built by a number of knowledgeable people – especially in Information and Communications Technologies. But most of all, it is being built by the people who use the Web. Unlike other prior revolutions, this one is top-down in its creation but down-top in its development. It is as if the Net had a will of its own, different from the will of each of the people involved in it. Things happen fast and transcend people, nations, races, gender.

I know this is like reinventing or reengineering humanity. Perhaps too big a task, but that is what a new age is about. Knowledge Society and the Internet are making it possible. The ten flatteners and the three convergences that Thomas Friedman speaks of in his book are making it possible. Two billion people are connected now, and all and each one of them has access to practically the same contents, tools and platforms. The power that can be released actually in this environment is paramount. And if the five billion people who are not actually in the Internet had access to it, the consequences would be immeasurable

World leaders must acknowledge and understand the deep meaning of these changes. It is not economics 2.0, or politics 2.0: its humanity 2.0. That is why I believe it is a new age, the age of Aquarius. The faster these ideas are put to work, the sooner its benefits will come to all humankind.

Alfredo Barriga
Past Secretary for Digital Development, Chile