Decentralization

The decentralization of the production and distribution of energy will lead to a watershed in the existing social, political and economic power structure. There is a tremendous inertia behind the current production and distribution of energy because it maintains a self perpetuating hegemony where a very small group of people (relative to the entire population of the earth) control the means of production of energy. Energy makes all human endeavors possible, since all human endeavors are far from "thermodynamic equilibrium." In other words, practically nothing anyone is able to do in this modern age would be possible without utilizing energy resources. Because of this fact, people who control the energy have an undue influence on the way in which any particular subjectivity can participate in making a living. The decentralization of energy production and distribution will illuminate cracks in this hegemony that will lead to greater freedom among all humanity to participate in endeavors of their choosing. This will occur along social, economic and political dimensions. Anyone will be able to produce enough energy to engage in most activities of their choosing, with the ability to sell that energy to other people who need it or want it for other purposes. From a social perspective, this means that people will be able to be more self-sufficient, and hence class lines will be diminished because people will not be constrained to choose a particular lifestyle because of constraints on their energy usage. From an economic perspective, the greater independence will allow people to get more in return on almost all of their activities and aspirations, since decentralization will decrease dramatically the cost of all human endeavors. From a political perspective, the decentralization will be a stake in the heart of an antiquated idea of a rigid and controlling power structure that determines the production and distribution of energy resources. There will probably be a strong backlash, but this will not be able to forestall the march of progress towards a more robust and egalitarian political dimension for the utilization of energy.

Decentralization will not stop merely at energy production and distribution. Knowledge (as shown by the internet...and such phenomena as wikipedia) will also become decentralized to a greater and greater degree, which will also have a profound influence on the way in which people can make a living, since the current economic system is set up in a way such that specialists can perform a service or function that is a benefit to someone else. By having specialized knowledge and performing a service specialists make a living (e.g. doctors, lawyers, mechanical engineers, etc...). If this specialized knowledge is available to everyone, there will be pressure towards a greater human dimension (e.g. the quality of human interaction for any particular specialist) and the production of new fields in which to specialize (e.g. computational biology).

Eventually the means of production will become completely decentralized as molecular manufacturing becomes a reality. This will have a similar effect as the decentralization of energy production and distribution, except to a much larger degree. By decentralizing the means of production, every individual will be able to make a living in practically whatever way they choose, as all personal economic and social constraints (as we know them now) will be effectively lifted. Along with the decentralization of the means of production, there will be a revolution in medicine, with the advent of completely personalized medicine (along genomic, proteomic, molecular, metabolic, etc... dimensions) as well as personalized education.

I am fairly confident that new constraints will be developed, but these constraints will very likely be of a very different nature than the constraints people face today, such as not having enough food to eat or being stricken by horrible sickness. I am cautiously optimistic that most ills we face, along both personal and social lines, will be solved to some degree though I am sure that new problems will be generated. I am hopeful that we as a human race will be able to engage in a deep and introspective dialogue as to the profound moral and ethical implications of this continually cascading wave of change, and be able to anticipate and prevent the greatest falls into whatever abyss we teeter over along the way outward into the adjacent possible.