Powerful Times: Rising to the Challenge of Our Uncertain World

Chapter 6. Intangible and Physical Economies

In the coming decade, we will witness a continued and accelerating transition from the industrial to the post-industrial era. With it we will experience the further rise of an “intangible” economy, in which the relationship between value and weight continues to break down and an increasing amount of what we consider valuable will be found in things we cannot hold: services, experiences, and relationships. But even as value migrates to the intangible world, the physical world of infrastructure will take on new importance and its maintenance will assume new urgency. Physical infrastructure will experience severe pressures in many parts of the world, becoming even more desperately in need of update and ...