For as long as people have lived together there has been a tendency to centralize and create hierarchy. We have seen the growth of many huge, centralized systems including government, corporations, schools, utilities, health care, the movie industry, the music industry and so on.
In a world where work was primarily done physically and without the ability to spread information and communicate instantly on a global scale, centralization brought efficiency, speed and a better life. Factories that consolidated people, machinery and money could create more at a lower price. Schools could educate the masses. Governments could extend control and maintain peace. Movie companies could muster the capital and the equipment to produe expensive movies and distribute them to physical movie theaters. Creating large organizations seemed inevitable and worthwhile. But for the past 30 years there has been a counter-trend toward decentralization.
Decentralization
As we do more work with our minds and as automation makes producing physical things possible with fewer people, there is less need for centralization. The Internet has accelerated this movement, particularly when it comes to breaking up the traditional media distribution hierarchies: television networks, movie studios, music producers and distributors, and newspaper empires. All of these have been battered and wrecked by the more decentralized, multiple-input capabilities of the Internet. Distribution requires no physical movement of stuff, but only the movement of electrons through space. Then need to centralize has been reduced in almost all cases and eliminated in many.
Corporations
I see the trend now moving into corporations as in the words of E. F. Schumacher, small once again becomes beautiful. More organizations are trying to stay small or at least “right-sized” for the goals they set out to accomplish. The idea of growth for the sake of growth is dying, and more organizations are discussing how to spin-off business units, outsource transactional work, and simplify their core businesses. There is an understanding that centralization reduces creativity and creates barriers to communication.
Schools
With the ability to distribute information through the Internet, schools are undergoing significant change. School systems are experimenting with virtual classrooms and fewer are investing in new physical campus buildings. Online tutoring, individualized learning programs, and project-based lessons are becoming more common and are likely to change the way we think about educating people. I don’t see any future in physical classrooms or in most of the pedegogy we have taught teachers.
The largest automobile companies are failing and the outcome will be smaller car producers, perhaps many dozens of them, innovating on a larger scale than ever.
Actually I see decentralization, distributed systems, and individualism rising rapidly over the next decade or two and radically changing government and most other social systems.
Health Care?
Therefore, is the larger government that seems inevitable, if our reform of the heath care system passes, in keeping with this trend? How could health care be distributed and decentralized, yet provide care to everyone as needed? These are the really interesting questions for politicians, practitioners and citizens.
I would really like to hear what you think about this.
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Wow! Cant say much about this article. I am speechless.Kevin i got a little busy few days back so could not get back to your blog. But whenever i read it i am amazed with the way you explain problems and relate it to likely solutions.Hats off!
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