"Bringing the Future to Your Industry"

 

Bold New World...  

A Summary of the Book

 

BOLD NEW WORLD is a visionary book.  It challenges, it excites, and it is extremely readable.  Bravo! - Tom Peters

Just as Future Shock and Megatrends significantly altered the way we think about societal change in the century just ended, BOLD NEW WORLD: The Essential Road Map to the 21st Century transforms our perception of the future yet again.  In this prescient work, William Knoke examines our rapidly evolving world hurtles us into the new millennium.  Moving beyond merely describing trends, futurist Knoke analyzes the dynamic forces that link these trends and offers a revealing synthesis that explains not only what is happening, but why and how it will affect every one of us.

Laying the groundwork for his visionary predictions, Knoke introduces fresh language describing the new realities he foresees in the 21st century.  In BOLD NEW WORLD, Knoke asserts that we are entering the Age of Everything- Everywhere, where the effortless flow of people, products, and knowledge from one location to another is creating a world where near equals far.  Brought on by revolutions in communications and transportation technologies, it is creating a Fourth Dimension that transcends time and space.  It is this erosion of the primacy of place, the principal foundation on which all traditional economic, political, and social structures have been built, Knoke contends, that is leading to "one of the largest societal upheavals the world has ever known."

President and Founder of the Harvard Capital Group, Knoke is a trained economist and business strategist.  In BOLD NEW WORLD, he draws on his extensive background to outline how wealth will be created, corporations will be organized, our personal lives will change, and society will govern itself in this new placeless society.  Knoke gives readers a preview of this world without place, in which:

·        the nation-state has crumbled

·        world government is in effect

·        religion has been revitalized as a major force shaping global politics

·        wealth is no longer restrained by labor, capital, and raw materials

·        giant corporations have fragmented into smaller, more adaptable units, generating turbocapitalism

·        cultural identity is not anchored to a country or even a continent

·        terrorist-warriors wield unprecedented power

·        the labor skills of the 20th century are already irrelevant for tomorrow

In fictional scenarios that introduce each chapter, Knoke illustrates how these trends will affect the everyday existence of men and women, from all levels of society.  Among the lives depicted are CEOs, warfare terrorists, students utilizing placeless technologies, housekeepers, and religious zealots.

William Knoke's BOLD NEW WORLD is a compelling book on the future that is different from any of its predecessors.  Describing the specific current events that are bringing the future into being right now, it offers practical advice on how we can prepare today for the changes that Knoke predicts.  BOLD NEW WORLD skillfully encompasses the breadth of the challenges we face today, while cogently analyzing the forces that will determine our destiny over the next two decades.  With it, individuals can clearly read the signposts that lie ahead and steer a course that will enable them to take advantage of the boundless opportunities of the bold new world to come.


New Terms that Define our Future

Terms unveiled in Bold New World

·        The Age of Everything Everywhere: The era we are currently entering, in which people, products, and knowledge flow effortlessly from one place to another, with near and far becoming the same thing.

·        The Amoeba Form: The mixing and matching of resources that allows us to develop alliances with multiple companies, and utilize placeless technologies to bring together workers throughout the world, in an infinitely dynamic way, to create economic wealth.

·        Digital Capital: No longer a physical object, capital is defined by electronic symbols.  High tech and transnational, it can range from ethereal numbers that show up on an accountant's balance sheet, to blips on a computer screen.

·        The Fourth Dimension: Brought on by rapidly evolving communications and transportation technologies, it gives us the ability to transcend time and space in our daily lives, and exist in a world no longer defined by place.

·        Global Tribes: The affiliation between individuals of common interests, beliefs, and cultures in diverse lands that are brought together by free choice, not by a shared country of origin.

·        Globocorps:  Corporate giants that not only have distinct operations in two or more countries, but are also managed as if nations did not exist: there is only the world.  Ignoring political lines, owing no national allegiance, they blend chameleon-like into the local landscape, with their corporate headquarters unconstrained by "place." They will produce the most innovative, cost-effective products and services, by combining the best talents and resources from around the world.

·        The Millennium Generation: The children of the "Now Generation," they take their cultural cues from T.V, video games, and the Internet.  How and from whom they learn ethics is at risk.  They are destined to forge a new revolution in social values.

·        The New Warfare: Guerrilla and terrorist wars of the future will ignore national boundaries and the distinction between soldier and civilian.  Their most powerful weapon will be raw fear.

·        The Placeless Society: The coming omnipresence that will allow everything-people, goods, resources, knowledge-to be available anywhere, often simultaneously, with little regard for distance or place.

 

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(c) 2010, 2011, 2012 William Knoke