Two cats, two antipodes and the Networked Society Gini
Describing a future scenario is tricky. Time travel is even harder than time management. Any predictions you make seems affected by quantum mechanics in the
large scale. Both Heisenberg and Schrödinger are hovering over the keyboard,
along with your own thoughts.
But the quantum
theories also come to your rescue. Just like the poor cat of Schrödinger, who
is neither dead nor alive but both at the same time, the future is in a dual
state until the future unfolds and we observe and take part of it. In order to map the future onto the cat we only need to identify the two states
the future could have. What is the “dead or alive” equivalent of our future?
The Networked Society
In order to find these states we will look into the core of the Networked Society, of which we are “at the inflection point”.
In order to find these states we will look into the core of the Networked Society, of which we are “at the inflection point”.
What is the
Networked Society? As it is part of the future that already has begun, we would
like to understand what defines it.
It started
out as a statement of “50 billion connected devices”, a great business outlook
for companies like Ericsson.
As the
Networked Society unfolded, marketing took over and told a large number of stories. Stories that showed that the Networked Society was unfolding in a fast
pace, and provided benefits for individuals and the society. Access to an all
communicating world becomes easier and cheaper, and the flow of data and media
become both faster and more enriched.
In short,
the marginal cost of communications went down.
At this
stage the next level of insight of a networked society strikes.
A networked society is a near zero marginal cost society. And not only in the IT
and ICT areas, but in every aspect of the networked humanity.
Read the
last paragraph again.
A near zero
marginal cost society.
Sounds innocent,
but at this stage another cat appears.
The Cheshire cat.
Entering a
near zero marginal cost society scenario is like following Alice down the
rabbit whole, or through the looking glass. You will recognize what you see,
but the logic has changed. Completely changed.
In this
strange world of a near zero marginal cost society, what is the “dead or alive”
states of the future cat? What extreme endpoints will define a relevant
dimension which will describe the potential state of the future?
For this I
will not put a cat in a box, but a Gini in a bottle.
The Gini endpoints
Let’s use
the endpoints of the Gini coefficient as the antipodes of our scale.
(Actually, I use the Gini term broader than the original one. I project the whole distribution and consumption of resources on the scale, and I also include other nodes than "individuals" in my mental compilation . I realize that this merrits a separate blog post. But that's for the future ;)
The Gini = 1 endpoint
As the
transaction cost is included in the overall marginal cost, also the transaction
cost will be close to zero. This will not only speed up the evolution, it will
also strengthen the forces that powers the Pareto law.
This can
lead to a well-known scenario in futuristic literature and movies; one or a few
very large entities control everything. The entities could be a foundation,
corporations or states.
This is a “Winner
takes it all”-scenario. Imagine that as marginal costs gets close to zero, the market forces will bring down the prices. And as transaction costs for
information also goes down the information will flow fast, and thus the only
way to get a competitive advantage and be able to charge a premium is to establish
a monopoly. And as the network effect goes across all industries the monopoly
will not be in a niche market, but ultimately across the whole society.
The Gini = 0 endpoint
What about
the other end of the scale? This is an "equal distribution" scenario. The same
forces; close to zero marginal cost and close to zero transaction costs, could
potentially power also this extreme end.
One way to view
this is that “as marginal costs are almost zero the prices will be zero, and
thus everyone can afford everything”. And the low transaction costs keeps that
balance across the whole economic system, very much like the fact that the sea
level is constant (well, almost…) across the ocean.
“Dead or
alive”?
For the cat “dead” is in most cases seen as the bad scenario, and “live” as a
god outcome. On the Gini scale, which one of the extremes is the good, and
which one is the bad endpoint? The answer for the Gini scale is not that obvious,
and depends also on other parameters.
Also, in the
case of Schrödinger’s cat the extremes are mutually exclusive. The cat ends up
either dead or alive. The Gini scale is a continuous scale. Neither the “most
likely outcomes” as nor the “most wanted outcomes” are found at the endpoints
(I strongly believe). But where?
Well, we'll see
The future
will tell. But we can shape the storyline and create our common future.
Given that
the Networked Society is at the inflection point, that a networked society is
a near zero marginal cost society and that it is all fuelled by transaction
costs closing towards zero – a really interesting and challenging
scenario - what shall we do?
As individuals and as part of a networked society we can, we
must and we shall take an active part in shaping the future.
The future
begins with us. Here and now.
Disclosure and disclaimer: I do work at Ericsson. However this post, and this blog as a whole, are my personal views and opinions, not those of my employer.