The Zero Marginal Cost Society - Jeremy Rifkin

Jeremy Rifkin, economist, government advisor & New York Times bestselling author of the book: The Zero Marginal Cost Society.

Jeremy Rifkin describes how the emerging Internet of Things is speeding us to an era of nearly free goods and services, precipitating the meteoric rise of a global Collaborative Commons and the eclipse of capitalism.

ENVIENTA Open Source Ecology - Live In An Economic Revolution

With the current rise of global economical problems, more people have to sacrifice their time to earn more income in order to keep up with the times. This is due to the cost of living that has drastically increased compared to that of 10 years ago. Our living needs have changed so much since then, that we find it hard to cope with our daily life.

We depend so much on the main electricity and power this day, from how we cook food to heating up the water with water heaters during our shower. Not only do we have to deal with the problem of the rising electricity bills, we have to also tackle the problems with our economic system that were caused by the usage of these conveniences.

A non-profit association has sprung its doors open to cater to you, me and our beloved Mother Earth. The ENVIENTA has seemed to figure out an answer to this rising issue. They have come up with a whole revolutionary open source based economic system that might be just the exact solution for a better, cleaner and greener living for us.

The concept that they have put together will definitely change how we look at the whole issue. Imagine living in a space where it costs lesser than regular houses, but, it is fitted and controlled entirely with a smart home system. It costs lesser because, instead of a regular brick house, it is made out of upcycled shipping container which is reconstructed to cater to our basic living needs.

As the rising costs of bills does have a huge impact on not only our monthly income, but the time invested to earn the pay cheque, these houses will be fully powered through the natural source of light. Solar panels will be fixed on this housing concept, where light energy from the Sun will be captured and conserved. It will then be converted into electrical energy when needed.

This would mean that all our equipment and electronics will be powered by this natural source of energy. Thus, there will be no monthly electric bills, lifting off the huge burden from our shoulders.

What ENVIENTA has included in their economic revolution concept is the use of Hydroponics and Aeroponics to meet our food demands. This is not only a great idea, but something that has never been put to thought to exist in our own homes as well.

As known to many, more vegetables and plantations today are grown with the excessive use of pesticides, insecticides and other types of chemical. The food that we consume might not be as safe as we thought it is. This will not only be able to reduce the amount of spending on vegetation, but eat food products that are proven to be cleaner and chemical-free, as well as reduce the amount of land or soil used in its growth.

Adding the use of Hydroponics and Aeroponics to the concept for our own use is certainly a vital point for our sustainability in the future and will be able to progress us to live greener as well.

Another great idea that the ENVIENTA has included in their concept is the usage of 3D printing technology. Depending on mainstream mass production line of products would mean that more amount of plastic, paper and other materials were produced in efforts to create a particular product of interest.

Most of us know very well how much waste we produce by day, and some of the waste cannot be recycled such as plastic matter. The idea that ENVIENTA project has introduced in using 3D technology might be another great solution that one could think of. Replacing mass produced furnitures with recycled plastics made from using 3D printing technology is a very innovative idea.

The whole concept seems to work well hand in hand, making it a whole new living edge and space. The amount of ideas ENVIENTA has come up with and how practical and broad they are is something that is sought upon. They might just be the next vital project that will bring the world into a spectrum of economic revolution and the answer to the future.

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We're just beginning to glimpse

the bare outlines of a new economic system

entering onto the world stage. This is
the first new economic system

to emerge since the advent of capitalism
and its antagonist socialism

in the early 19th century. It's a
remarkable historical

event. It has long term implications for
every one of us our children and our grandchildren.

This new economic system is the
collaborative commons.

And what's triggering this shift to a new
economic paradigm

a collaborative commons economic system
is something called

zero marginal cost. Marginal cost

the cost of producing an additional
unit of a good and service

after your fix costs are covered. The prospect
of a technology revolution so extreme in

its productivity

that it can reduce those marginal
cost to near zero across the value chain

making goods and services essentially
priceless

nearly free abundant and beyond the
market exchange economy.

Then this zero marginal cost phenomena
went on to invade the entire information

goods industry.

Millions of consumers became prosumers

and they began producing their own
information goods.

If you take a look at the
newspaper industry magazines, book

publishing and the recording industry

they've never come back from zero marginal
cost.

Our economists have thought well we think
there's a firewall here.

And that is even though more and more
information goods are heading toward

near zero marginal cost

in virtual worlds

that they will not cross the firewall
into the physical world

of brick and mortar goods and services. No longer.

What's happening now is that the
communication internet

is now expanding to an Internet of
Things. A physical internet

that allows us to go
from the world of bits to the world

atoms. And when we have these three
internets

embedded in one system - a communication
internet that's interacting continually with an

energy internet and a transport and
logistics internet in one platform -

this Internet Of Things allows us to begin
moving near zero marginal cost

from information goods to physical
goods. By 2020 IBM says we'll be at 30 billion sensors

and a recent forecast study
a few months ago says that by 2030

we will have a 100 trillion sensors

connecting everything with everyone in
one global

neural network. When we move from the
internet to the Internet of Things

and we move from bits to atoms we begin
to see a completely new economic model

that can get us to near zero marginal
cost

in the production and distribution of
physical energy and physical products.

Anyone of millions of prosumers will
be able to increase their productivity

dramatically reduce their marginal cost
and produce

consume and share their own physical
energy and

manufactured goods with each other just
like we now do with information goods.

The big wild card here is food and
water and climate change.

Because if we can't address climate change
and we continue on this road,

if we can't produce food and don't have
access to water in a reliable fashion

everything I'm telling you is derailed.

This new system is already in place in Europe.
Let's take energy.

The moment you put up a solar panel on
your building

or a wind turbine on-site, even before you
pay back the fixed cost

- and that's usually 3 to 8 years so it's not
a long time. Immediately though your

marginal costs are near-zero

because the sun off your roof is free. The
wind off the side of your building is free.

The geothermal heat coming up from
under the ground is free. Your garbage

converted in a bioconverter to energy
in your kitchen, it's all free.

And millions of small players had joined
together in cooperatives

small and medium-sized businesses, homeowners.
They're generating the new electricity

The Internet Of Things is designed to be
distributed, collaborative,

peer-directed and it scales to
lateral economies of scale.

Then let's take 3D printed products. We
now have

several hundred thousand hobbyists,
thousands of small and medium-sized

startup companies that are printing out
their own 3D printed products.

And they're attaching their 3D printing
operation, at least in Europe,

into this new Internet Of Things, this third
Industrial Revolution.

You go up on the Internet, you download your software - it's all free,

open source - then you use for your
feed stock

recycled plastic, paper or even using
sand and gravel

and melting it down at near zero
marginal cost. Then they're

powering their 3D printing factory

with green energy from their energy
internet that's generated

at near zero marginal cost.

Then they're marketing their products on
global websites

with very little advertising cost,

you just pay a short fee, low marginal
cost. And then we're just beginning to

put in the logistics internet.

You'll be able to power your vehicle
to send your 3D printed product to

market with your own green electricity
from the energy internet,

and the electric vehicles in a few years
from now will be printed out.

The first printed vehicle now exists in
Canada. It runs on solar.

We'll have driverless vehicles that can
move across the system at will

near zero marginal cost.

This is a revolution.

The question becomes this. If millions
then hundreds of millions

of people can begin to produce, consume or
share

their own information goods, energy and a
lot of their manufactured goods

at near zero marginal cost, making them
nearly free

and beyond the exchange model of the
capitalist market, what kind of new economic

system do we have to envision to
organize the world

the one that I'm laying out here?

It's the
social commons.

What's happening now is the social
commons, which is a venerable institution

that we rely on for education
institutions that are non-profit,

health services, day care centers for
our children,

assisted living for the elderly,

environmental organizations,

cultural, sports, arts, it goes on and on.

If they were eliminated and we just had the marketplace,

we would not have much of a life on the planet.

The social commons is ignored by economists because

it doesn't create finance capital. It
creates social capital.

But it's a big revenue player. What's
making this

social commons now more relevant than
any time in the past

is this Internet Of Things.

Because the Internet Of Things is a
general purpose technology platform

that's designed to be the technological
soulmate

of the social commons. The whole design is
to be distributed,

collaborative, scales latterally, not
vertically

and it rewards collaboration across these
lateral networks.

It creates a sharing community.

If millions and millions of people are
producing and sharing their own energy

and 3D printed products and information goods, they're going to need less income,

at zero marginal cost.

They're still going to need employment. If the marketplace doesn't need them

because we can produce the energy and the products, you know

in the marketplace with just
high-technology,

where will you get the employment?

In the social commons. The social
commons creates social capital

human beings with the other human beings,
creating communities -

cultural, sports, arts, wellness, health,
quality of life.

Those are the more important employments.
Making widgets is not as intellectually

challenging and motivating to the young mind as it is

trying to create a sense of human community,

a sense of transcendence and

sense of finding meaning in the world

Last thought.

We can get to nearly free energy.

We're already there, nearly free goods
and services, but without food and water

we don't survive. And we don't know, if we
can even feed people

and provide water for people, how do we
repopulate millions of people in

the western part of the US in 30 years?

So... climate change is

the elephant in the room. What's
important to acknowledge here is that the

third Industrial Revolution, this Internet
Of Things allows us

to move quickly out of fossil fuels.
And have millions of people begin to

produce and share their own green energy.

And this Internet of Things, because its
entire purpose

is to increase efficiencies to reduce
marginal costs it means

it shows us how to use less resources more effectively.

So we don't put a big burden
on the planet that we live in.

So we have young people here not only sharing

information goods and energy now
and 3D printed products,

but so we have car sharing and bike
sharing and now we're sharing apartments and

homes and clothes and tools and toys.

So we have a generation that's beginning to believe

it's not about ownership, it's access,

and if more people share what they have,
less has to be produced.

It does have a negative impact on
GDP

but it has a positive impact on quality
of life, and that's the way

to measure a good economy.

It isn't just technology. What it does is
it democratizes the economy.

And hopefully you'll be in a world in
2050 that won't be the 1% or the 99%.

It'll be a shared economy, a sustainable
good quality of life,

where no one's left behind. Now is it Utopia?
No.

We need to change the human narrative. We
need a new story for the

human race to go with the technology.

We have to move from geopolitics to
biosphere consciousness

in one generation. Everything we do

intimately impacts some other human, some
other ecosystem

some other species on this Earth. We've got a
young generation here that's beginning to see

we live in one indivisible community, the biosphere.

So I'm guardedly hopeful.

And if we can dramatically increase
efficiencies,

reduce our marginal cost, and that means
using less resources

more effectively and taking a less burden
on the planet,

we may get to a better world by mid-century.

You need to help lead this, so we
have a chance of rehealing the planet

and creating a future for our children.