MAIN IDEA:

This book states that humanity has already moved beyond the classical capitalism of Adam Smith to the new economic system when governments and their regulations severely restrict markets. This new economic system also characterizes by the switch of primary human efforts from material production to information processing. The book defines it by four propositions:

1. Wealth is knowledge.
2. Growth is learning.
3. Information is surprise.
4. Money is time.

In the end, after going into details of each proposition, the book offers a concise formulation of the new system and its “Do and Don’ts.”

MY TAKE ON IT:

I also believe that information and knowledge became much more critical than material production, providing this material production is continuously maintained at the necessary level, including reserve capacities. However, I would note that not only does material production become automated and eventually will not need human efforts except for high-level decision-making, but the same relates to information processing and the generation of new knowledge. This development makes human capital outdated, and the most important task for humanity in the next 100 years or so is to find a way to develop a new economic and societal system that would support the human pursuit of happiness. Since the very foundation of human society – activities in creating and distributing resources, including information and knowledge, becomes redundant, people will have to develop new ways to be happy. It is not a simple and easy process, and the most dangerous development I could think about is that humanity will fail to restrict those individuals for whom happiness comes from control over others. Such failure would lead to practically unlimited totalitarianism. It is somewhat similar to the growth in productivity during recent centuries when food acquisition in industrial society became much more manageable than for hunter-gatherers, resulting in using the newly available human resources to initiate territorial or ideological conquest wars with massive armies fighting regardless of agricultural seasons.