Earth 2.0: a world ruled by the people, for the people?

I presented this morning the vision of 2035.

It’s too long and too much to go into (I had 2 hours to present and got through half my slides!), but the core of the presentation went along the lines of defining Earth 2.0.

I actually don’t like the term 2.0 or 3.0, but it’s well known what we mean by it thanks to Tim O’Reilly and Brett King.  It’s an easy metaphor to consider the way the world is today.

Earth 1.0 was the world of electricity.

Before we electrified the world, we all lived around camp fires, reciting stories about local legends and working for the local gentry.

Earth 1.0 changed all that.

Earth 1.0 electrified the world.

It gave heat to homes and fire to the engines of industry.

It enabled us to mass produce, to manufacture and to create and distribute goods and services.

Electricity was more than a source of light; it was a source of abundance.

The result was that the 19th and 20th centuries went through a revolution.

It was not just an industrial revolution but a manufacturing revolution, an office revolution, a societal revolution.

We wired the planet.

Now we are making the planet wireless.

That is the 21st century revolution: to take the electrically powered planet and make it wireless.

The difference with this revolution is that it knows no borders or bounds, because there are no borders or bounds.

Last century was localised – you had to stick a wire in a wall – but this century is globalised and now anyone can connect with anyone, anywhere, through the air.

It is a fundamental change.

As we talked about Earth 2.0, the fundamental change that the group raised is that we now have governments unable to control anything – because they are localised – so global companies will control everything.

Obama, Merkel and Cameron control nothing.

They are trying, but the globalised Earth 2.0 is run by the rule of the net, not of any of its member states.

That is a tough learning.

Here’s another one: the global wireless Earth will be run by the people, for the people.

Like eBay, everyone will have a trust rating, and that will determine who deals with whom.

Bitcoin will be the key driver of value exchange, and the corporations and citizens will create the rule of law.

Forget passports, identities and the law: the new Earth will be run by likes, shares and star-ratings.

Sure, there will be nuances of government control in all of this, but Earth 2.0 is run by the people, for the people, not by they government, for the country.

There is no country in Earth 2.0.

Just the globally connected hive.

Scary?

Actually no.  Very exciting and stimulating, and a world where the players – such as Bitcoin, Amazon, Alibaba, Facebook, QQ, YY, Badoo and co, can make a lot money.

A world ruled by governments, or by corporations or by the people, for the people.

You decide.