PART ONE

THRIVING IN A NEW ECONOMY

Sometime in the middle of the next century we will move past software and hardware to wetware—the merging of digital and biological information into a ubiquitous and functional DNA. Before plunging into this “childhood’s end,” humanity will serve an arduous apprenticeship. Over the next few decades the Net, and the intimate relationship between producer and consumer invoked by personalized products, will shatter the anonymity of mass consumption, mass politics, mass media. It will be an age of “in your face” contact harkening back to village life. And it will also be an age of insecurity as the fixtures of daily experience such as going to school, going to work, and going on vacation are smashed. Old ways of working and learning will get as little respect as did the rhythms of the farm when people moved to the city and factory.

Yet the dividing line between social meltdown and successfully completing our apprenticeship will depend more than ever on our collective ability to create trust. Without trust, the intangible knowledge that is the life blood of an innovation-driven economy will not flow. And without the flow of learning we will be unable to overcome the fragmentation, polarization, and cultural homogenization that threaten the cherished dream of human self-determination and fulfillment.

Riel Miller

Alliance for Converging Technologies, 1995