We are entering the second great stage of the global economy. The last column here looked back at the foundations of the global economy up to and through the reorganizational recession of 2007-2011. We now look at what has happened in the years since and begin the look into what the next stage might look like.

Out of Date Metrics

The economic metrics from the last century, to some degree, no longer accurately measure global economic reality. I remember speaking across the United States and around the world in 2010 and 2011, the years after the economic thought leaders in …

Think back five or six years ago to 2008 or 2009. If you thought about equal marriage for people of the same sex what did you think?   If you were gay or knew someone who was and wanted to be married you had clear and perhaps deeply felt views. If not, perhaps you thought it was right, that all people, regardless of sexual preference, had an equal right to be married. Perhaps you were constrained by religious or learned moral beliefs that it was wrong. Perhaps you didn’t really think about it, as it didn’t affect your life in any …

Thousands of crumbling bridges, millions of gaping potholes, billions of dropped calls, limited bandwidth, a fragile electric grid, antiquated nuclear power plants, water and sewer systems that are decrepit and dangerous.  This is not the foundation for another “American Century”.  It is the disaster of the infrastructure in the United States half way through the second decade of the century.

In the last column here, I referenced numerous dialogues I had from 2008-2011 as I gave speeches all across this country.  In the dark months and years of the Great Recession I was consistently asked the question “How can …

What might the future of the Internet be?  What can it be?  How empowering can it be for Capitalism and Democracy in the 21^st century? What must we do to maximize the positive possibilities the Internet provides humanity as we stand at the fork in the road Buckminster Fuller foresaw decades ago: – Utopia or Oblivion?

As a futurist this is the perspective from which  I think about the current issues of “net neutrality” or the “open net”.  The current debate on Net Neutrality is now center stage due to a court ruling forcing the FCC to suggest a new doctrine.  …