By the mid-1970's the number of people in the U.S.A engaged in this new field had caught up with those engaged in industry. Although these developments refer specifically to the U.S.A., parallel changes can be found in most of the more developed nations. The less developed nations show similar tendencies, but they lag behind the more developed ones to varying degrees. These lags, however, will almost certainly decrease as time goes on. It has a doubling time of around six years and in 1975 overtook industry in terms of employment.
Information is now the dominant form of employment in developed nations.
While a country may be fifty years behind the West in reaching the stage at which industrial activity becomes dominant, it may only be ten years behind when it makes the transition to an information-dominant society. Japan is an example of a country that, despite a late start, has quite definitely caught up with the West. Many of the Middle East, oil-rich nations, such as Kuwait and Saudi Arabia, are also making rapid strides. As more and more nations of the world move into the Information Age, the technology of communications and information processing will dramatically affect the human race, as we become more and more integrated through the burgeoning network of electronic synapses. If we look back over human history, we can see that this trend toward a progressive linking of humanity seems to have been going on for millennia.