New advanced robotics will help reduce the need for expensive labor. Improved extraction and recycling processes will reduce the costs of raw materials. Modern engineering will continue to make our artificial materials more durable and our motors more efficient. However, computer technology brings the most important change, letting businesses exploit their most valuable resource information. The Internet allows businesses to communicate directly to consumers with stunning ease.
Customers can research products, purchase goods and pay bills online.
The constraints of physical location melt away, and we can measure the success of this convenience in the billions of dollars of e-commerce transacted each year. The desire for convenience does not stop with online shopping. Economists have talked for years about a transition to a service economy, but only now, with communications and information technology tightly binding companies to customers, can we really comprehend the new universe of services. In order to compete, companies will have to become infinitely more flexible, repairing their products, meeting our desires, answering our questions, and always, always responding faster. And there is another, less obvious implication of these new possibilities.