# The Coming Information Age (Possible Book Outline)

**Published by:** [Continuations](https://continuations.com/)
**Published on:** 2014-06-12
**URL:** https://continuations.com/the-coming-information-age-possible-book-outline

## Content

As I am blogging my way through the various aspects of a transition to the Information Age I am still keeping in mind that eventually I would like to gather up all the material into a book. So here is possible outline for such a book. Would love to get feedback on what’s missing (or too much), different possible orders and anything else that comes to mind. So please fire away with comments! 1. Introduction / Motivation — fundamental premise: industrial -> information is a transition as important as hunter gatherer -> agriculture and agricultural -> industrial — why now? because we can see the beginning of the changes, examples: self driving cars, face recognition, machine translation — changes build slowly at first but then accelerate, example: up to 1900 almost 50% of people still worked in agriculture — prior transitions did not go very well and we now have more destructive power at our hands than ever before (nuclear, biological, etc) — much of the policy debate is stuck in the industrial age and amounts to re-arranging the deck chairs on the Titanic 2. Industrial Age Recap — brought us extraordinary material progress - examples: air conditioners, cars, medicine, life span — not yet equally distributed but have been making great strides in eliminating poverty globally — fundamental engine of the industrial age: consumer demand -> products made with capital and labor -> wages to labor -> more demand — capitalism became the winning model in the industrial age because entrepreneurs created innovative products to meet consumer needs 3. Industrial Age Breaking Down — substituting machines for labor, so wages declining and eventually going away and with them the demand for more stuff — initially counteracted this challenge through consumer debt — already producing more stuff than we need to meet our material needs (hence the rise advertising) — research shows that stuff doesn’t make us happy, experiences do, biggest growth need is spiritual (not material) — facing species threats including environment, asteroids, disease that need to be addressed at global (not national) level 4. Information Age Arriving — first time in human history that everyone on planet is connected instantly at no (marginal) cost — information is non-rival - we should share as much of it as possible (eg how to build an electric car) — combined with exponential improvements in compute power and storage — makes many things possible that were previously impossible, examples: collectively creating and editing an encyclopedia, teaching a machine to translate between languages, find cures for diseases 5. Fundamental Change 1: From Hierarchies to Networks — increased information flow allows for more cooperation and more motivation — individuals become peers in networks — networks are resilient and global 6. Fundamental Change 2: Technological Deflation — automation, on-demand manufacturing — asset utilization — rise of consumer surplus — importance of the information commons — attacking healthcare and education — energy? 7. Fundamental Change 3: Unbundling of the Job — separating of income, meaning, daily structure, health insurance — guaranteed basic income in a deflationary world — educating for motivation 8. Fundamental Change 4: Moving Past the Nation State — the fall of artificial boundaries — the rise of cities — from big government to information standards 9. Threats Along the Way — incumbents against the Internet (eg re-imposing geographic boundaries, overextending copyright) — breakdown of attention and money in politics — digital balkans and lack of empathy — surveillance versus open sharing — income and wealth inequality in the transition 10. How to Prepare — individuals: fight for the Internet, pursue passion — parents: motivation is paramount — educators: make connections — companies: empower networks — governments: embrace transparency 11. Outlook: Towards Abundance

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