Systems emerge out of necessity, they facilitate progress, and they’re exploited until they become redundant. Our needs are perpetually changing, and so any man made system is really only a catalyst for the next more efficient system. It’s delusional to think that our individual opinions actually matter in the grand scale of change.

Most make the assumption that the ‘establishment’ is in control and that since the dawn of civilization established forces like government and industry have regulated and controlled progress, and that this is not likely going to change. Except under these constraints innovative technology can only be marketed if it creates economic value. It has to contribute to growth and most importantly it can’t disrupt the current economic infrastructure. The established relies somewhat on the status quo, more of the same or linear change. We aren’t structured to accommodate exponential change.

Our global economic model is reliant on scarcity with respect to supply and demand, but technology creates abundance. Technological progress and economic growth are actually in inverse proportion, though they are commonly assumed to be in direct proportion. Planned obsolescence is an example of how industry accommodates economic growth over demand, efficiency or overall improvement of the human condition. Nearly all innovation today is considered ‘disruptive’ to the current socioeconomic model. More sustainable technologies such as solar power, electric cars, and advances in biotech, if adopted by the public would collapse the world economy. Oil and Gas companies dominate the top 50 companies by revenue followed by automotive and pharmaceutical Industries.  The established system can no longer effectively facilitate progress at the rate at which we are experiencing it, an indicator that the new system will emerge. But what form will it take and how will it happen?

When we think about how these changes will manifest themselves we really have to consider all of the variables. We have to take into account that we are 7 billion people positioned on the sharp upward curve of exponential change. This becomes apparent when we consider we've experienced more change in the last 200 years than in the past 6 million. Currently 30%- 35% of the world has internet access according to the International Telecommunication Union. Google executive chairman Eric Schmidt predicts that everyone will be connected by 2020. Through this medium, we will overcome borders, language, culture, oppression, and scarcity.  We are evolving into a global interconnected community.  For these reasons we live in entirely unique times. There is no other known point in history comparable; therefore we can no longer draw from history to predict our future.  All we can really count on is that nothing will ever be the same.

The DIY culture transcends the boundaries of the market, industry and government regulation. Could they dominate the future?  They are rapidly growing in numbers and they are impossible to regulate. They are self-sustaining yet connected. The DIY culture is made up of extremely diverse groups of Hackers, Biohackers, Pirates, and Makers . They innovate in places like Fab Labs , Community design labs, hackerspaces, in their homes, garages and basements. Their tools are radical open source education, science, technology and networking via the internet. Anyone can take part, there are no restrictions. Open source education via the internet makes it possible for absolutely anyone with internet access to learn and contribute.  It allows us to utilize more human resources with more diverse backgrounds yielding infinitely unique possibilities.

Consider for a moment what a world dominated by this culture would look like? What type of model would emerge?  Likely something decentralized and highly organized; a kind of Anarchic and complex system of connections and centers, just like neural networks in the brain.  Filmmaker and philosopher Jason Silva points out in his video ‘To understand is to perceive patterns’, that the more efficient man made systems become the more they imitate nature. Nature always favors efficiency.  The brain model is far superior to that of the hierarchical pyramid model. It can accommodate exponential change without negatively effecting infrastructure. Lateral control versus hierarchical or central control is less vulnerable to corruption, oppression and collapse. It’s through this brain model that we will realize abundance, and the technological singularity.

There is no reform. There is no turning back and doing it better the next time around. The shoe no longer fits. Material excess, status and power as we know it today will no longer be desirable. The new currency will be information, knowledge, skill and diversity. So to invest in the future is to invest in you as an individual. Understand and master that which sustains you. Learn how to utilize and contribute to open source. Get involved with your local hackerspace, if there aren’t any in your area, start one. 

Out of the ashes of the inevitable, and gradual collapse of the old socioeconomic system will emerge the self-sustaining and invincible DIY culture, and they will dominate out of necessity. They will form a series of connections and centers, laterally controlled by the participants. No leaders and no followers. We will adopt this new paradigm not because we think it’s a great idea but for the survival of our species.