This is part of my ongoing research on new economic models.
No jobs? No ownership? No capitalism? No problem. For Jeremy Rifkin, a post-jobs and post-ownership future will propel humanity to a next level of human consciousness: Homo Empathicus. Technology will liberate humanity from the material pursuits, so we can focus on empathy and collaboration.
Zero Marginal Cost Society projects a reorganization of society around new modes of communication and energy will underpin this new civilization:
- Renewable energy, chiefly solar energy, will be produced by citizens for their own community.
- Automation, along with 3D printing, will be able to replicate and produce whatever a community needs, provided by cheap, abundant renewable energy.
- The “Internet of Things” will allow all machines to communicate and a coordinate to adjust to the needs of the people.
The result is the ability to produce goods at virtually no cost, provided with free information (open source), free energy (renewable), and free labour (robotics).
For Rifkin, he sees the foundation of the future in the present. From robotic automation to Wikipedia, Couchsurfing and solar microgrids, there are already plenty of real world examples of large scale collaboration, sharing, and also the production of goods and services at ever lower marginal costs.
While centered on humanity’s techno-future, Zero Marginal Cost Society is wildly ambitious in scope. The book detours at length to describe a sweeping narrative of human history, where energy is the main paradigm that drives human development and even human consciousness. From wind power to coal, Rifkin sees energy behind the drive towards urbanization (windmill power), religion (hydraulic agriculture) and so on. In this narrative, renewable energy on a microgrid is the next step of human civilization.
Energy Sources & Human Consciousness?
Going further, the book attempts to match this energy-paradigm with human consciousness itself. As we go up the different energy paradigm, Rifkin claims that human consciousness and identify shifts – from tribal to religious, to cultural/psychology and finally to universal empathy. The next energy paradigm shift – along with IoT and automation – will leads to humanity’s Hegelian Emphatic Civilization.
In this relatively short read, Rifkin packs a lot of information, examples, analogies, research and social commentary. With so much ground to cover, the book is both ambitious and sometimes awkward. It attempts to sell the promise a more spiritual, abundant, techno-future of humanity and at the same time trying to construct a framework for understanding the history of human civilization and human consciences.
Ambitious Ideas, Many Assumptions
The book makes vast assumptions about human behavior, especially the notion that nearly free energy and material wealth will make society, not only less materialistic but also more emphatic. There is also a question of who will pay for the book’s new form of energy, IoT infrastructure, and manufacturing infrastructure.
Others can also quibble with some of Rifkin’s examples and generations. The most obvious is that 3D printing, so far, has not lived to its hype. And IoT, still in its infancy, opens large questions on security and privacy that have yet to be addressed.
Yet, as a work about the future, the book succeeds in attempting to extrapolate a fantastical new future from the present. Given the global sense of uncertainty today, Rifkin utopian vision of how humanity can move forward is a welcome contribution.
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