The Only Engine Big Enough To Impact

Several Technological And Political Forces Have Converged, And That Has Produced A Global, Web-enabled Playing Field That Allows For Multiple Forms Of Collaboration Without Regard To Geography Or Distance - Or Soon, Even Language.

Oil Is A Tangible Commodity, So There Is A Global Market. The Fact That We May Need Less May Affect The Global Price Because We're Big Consumers: We Probably Take About A Quarter Of Global Demand. But If Suddenly, Let's Just Use A Crazy Example, Fighting In The Middle East Led To The Closure Of The Strait Of Hormuz And No Oil Could Get Out Through The Strait Of Hormuz, Well That Would Affect China, India, Europe, It Will Affect The Whole Global Economy. It Will Affect Us, Too, Then.

The Philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein Once Remarked That If You Ask A Man How Much Is Two Plus Two And He Tells You Five, That Is A Mistake. But If You Ask A Man How Much Is Two Plus Two And He Tells You Ninety-seven, That Is No Longer A Mistake. The Man You Are Talking To Is Operating With A Wholly Different Logic From Your Own.

Something Really Big Happened In The World's Wiring In The Last Decade, But It Was Obscured By The Financial Crisis And Post-9/11. We Went From A Connected World To A Hyperconnected World. I'm Always Struck That Facebook, Twitter, 4g, Iphones, Ipads, High-speech Broadband, Ubiquitous Wireless And Web-enabled Cellphones, The Cloud, Big Data, Cellphone Apps And Skype Did Not Exist Or Were In Their Infancy A Decade Ago.

A 2011 Report Produced By Forrester Research Estimated That The Revenue Generated Through The Sales Of Smartphone And Tablet Applications Will Reach $38 Billion Annually By 2015. Think About That: An Industry That Did Not Exist In 2006 Will Be Generating $38 Billion In Revenues Within A Decade. . . .