Chapter 29: Global Coevolution

1. To this day, no expert seems able to explain precisely why socialism collapsed and capitalism flourished. But unless we understand why capitalism works, we will never be able to make the most of it.

2. Capitalism has been impossible to comprehend because we have continued to stare at it from the wrong angle. Two centuries of economic thought conditioned us to accept blindly the notion of "economy as machine."

3. Bionomics is the branch of study that examines the economic relations between organisms and the environment. As such, bionomics provides the best starting point for a new way of thinking about the human economy.

4. Bionomics describes the ecosystem and the economy as separate, parallel domains of evolving information. Genetic information, recorded in the DNA molecule, is the basis of all organic life. Technical information, captured in books, blueprints, databases, and the know-how of millions of individuals, is the source of all economic life.

5. Neither the global ecosystem nor the global economy needs a conscious force to keep it organized. Spontaneous order emerges from the interactions of each system's component parts.

6. While some analysts still point to the Japanese government's industrial planning for the country's dramatic upsurge, the real story is simpler. Karl Marx's anti-capitalistic dogma was never absorbed by the Japanese. Instead, they took responsibility for creating a supportive business environment.

7. For the last quarter of a century, America has pursued policies that have unwittingly yet systematically undermined the natural processes of economic development. Blissfully unaware that an economy is a delicate ecosystem, we starved it of the nutrients required for its health and renewal.

8. For some, the bionomic perspective may be disturbing because it chips away at our species' sense of uniqueness. Having only recently reconciled ourselves to the fact that we descended from apes, we now must consider that even in our technological and economic lives we are part of a larger evolutionary unfolding.

9. Regardless of how one reacts emotionally to the bionomic outlook, if it portrays economic reality accurately, the future's basic course is clear. With or without a competitive United States, the global economy will continue to evolve.

10. Today, the challenge of change is greater than it has been in five centuries. Like our ancestors, we have only the vaguest notion of the frontiers that lay ahead. But if we dare to look, even now we can catch the first glimmerings of scientific and economic revolutions that will dwarf the experiences of history.