“Buckminster Fuller created the “Knowledge Doubling Curve”; he noticed that until 1900 human knowledge doubled approximately every century. By the end of World War II knowledge was doubling every 25 years. Today things are not as simple as different types of knowledge have different rates of growth. For example, nanotechnology knowledge is doubling every two years and clinical knowledge every 18 months. But on average human knowledge is doubling every 13 months. According to IBM, the build out of the “internet of things” will lead to the doubling of knowledge every 12 hours.” – David Russell Schilling
One evening in 1994, I was embroiled in a deep conversation with my lead IT developer at Hamilton Securities. We had been prototyping the application of numerous new digital tools in our lives, business and the economic and financial flows in communities. We were trying to understand the implications of what we were learning.
All of the information tools and technologies we were applying – the Internet, the World Wide Web, GIS software, on line financial design books, software and relational databases available to global investors and high speed cable connections and satellites, — were increasing market competition and speeding up the learning metabolism within our society. Some groups were embracing the technology and moving forward at high speed. Others were resisting. Our latest application – use of optimization technology to bid large mortgage auctions – had inspired the head of the real estate portfolio at the Harvard Endowment to scream “F**k You!” at me when he realized his positions were now exposed to open market competition from investors around the globe who could access the Internet or a Bloomberg terminal.
Changes in information technology were evaporating political and economic boundaries. This was causing political warfare within organizations, between organizations and across investment markets and networks. Our nickname for this phenomenon was “the databeast.” Whenever the databeast showed up – all hell broke loose.
We decided to revisit natural patterns. My IT developer said he had a friend who was a physicist at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. He would call him to ask what happens in living systems when the learning metabolism increases. He returned to the table in a very sober state. He had reached the physicist. He said, “The rate of entropy increases.”
The symptoms of an increasing rate of entropy are all around us in 2017. This is part of the phenomenon of moving significant resources from what I call Global 2.0 to Global 3.0. The “controlled demolitions” described in our Annual Wrap Up in January are accelerating. Scientific and technological innovations are coming fast and furious. Change will continue to accelerate for some time to come.
Our News Trends & Stories Editor Brad Eddins has done a remarkable job of capturing the events of the 3rd Quarter. His line up can help you stay abreast of current events. More important, gives you the perspective to sit back and see the deeper trends unfold. That’s the perspective that will help you navigate your future with confidence and ease. Yes, the rate of entropy is increasing, and that can be good for you and me if we focus on what is real and move towards increased integrity in all aspects of our life and finances.
As shocking, amazing, appalling and overwhelming as the news can be these days, there are always remarkable people who inspire us and long standing mysteries that remain to be solved. You can find some of them here.
Here are the Solari team choices for the important New Trends & Stories for 3rd Quarter 2017!