Information Revolution: Digital Communication, Computation and the New World Culture

There are two fundamental economic systems in the world. These are autocracy and capitalism. Autocracy means rule by one person or a small group. Power is concentrated here. Autocracy usually leads to murder on a mass scale as seen with Nazism as in Germany or Communism as in Russia. This propensity for state murder disqualifies this as a viable ideology. Sooner or later, the masses clamber over the walls and dispose of the autocracies. The mill that keeps capitalism turning is technology. This has been true since about 1776 or the country's founding, first for the military market, and then for the general market. Today's technology is based on the personal computer and the cell phone that combines power, communications or electronics and computers. The argument is made that an Information Revolution (shortened to Inforev) has been underway since 1980, paralleling the Industrial Revolution. It is argued that electricity is the greatest innovation of all time and has brought us all to wealth and advanced culture. This story develops the history of electronics that has spawned most of today's innovations. For instance, today's hand-held devices house batteries for mobile power, microscopic communications and computer functions as will be developed.