As Charles points out, the Industrial Era has focused on mining limited natural resources, whereas the Knowledge Era ushers in the possibilities of mining unlimited human resources, our minds. The Industrial Era gave us an economy of scarcity, where we had to protect and control. The Knowledge Era is providing a platform to create the economy of abundance, based on non-scarce ideas, which through dynamic collaboration, can grow into inspirational arteries which nurture even more creativity. This infostructure is dependent not just on advances in computer based technology, from parallel processing to the World Wide Web on the Internet, but it is also dependent on a shift in our attitudes or mindsets. In the first part of Fifth Generation Management, Charles uses the analogy of high jumping.
People reach higher levels because they are willing to rethink their mindsets.
On the Web, people are valued not because of a fancy title or big car, but because of the quality of their interaction. It is not communication or discussion, but quality conversation and dialogue which count. Questions are more valuable than statements, because they nurture exploration and discovery. Our tools are changing. In the Industrial Era we used heavy hammers to break apart the earth to free its riches.