Kevin Kelly saw the future in 1997: “in the Network Economy, follow the free”

New Rules for the New Economy, written in 1997 (almost 30 years ago!)

He describes 12 principles for the changing world, I’ll briefly describe them here:

1. Law of Connection – every object will have a chip, and they’ll all be connected

2. Law of Plenitude – predicts network effects to all these connections, and falling prices for goods

3. Law of Exponential Value – predicts exponential growth in the value of these connected networks

4. Law of Tipping Points – changes will happen earlier and earlier, and recognizing them will become harder

5. Law of Increasing Returns – the network will accrue greater value, greater everything

6. Law of Inverse Pricing – the prices for everything will fall, and we will invent new pricey things

7. Law of Generosity – “in the Network Economy, follow the free”

8. Law of the Allegiance – join the network, feed the network, become the network

9. Law of Devolution – old markets and industries will be destroyed as more valuable new markets and industries are created; let go

10. Law of Displacement – the economy will slowly be absorbed into the web

11. Law of Churn – disruption becomes the new norm

12. Law of Inefficiencies – think bigger, imagine more, and the network will reward it