The real source of wealth is not money. Money is abundant and plentiful. Fiat can be printed at will. It’s a means to an end.
Useful knowledge that advances civilization on the other hand is scarce. Great thinkers like Newton enable progress.
Consider for a moment what $1 million would have bought you 500 years ago… 100 years ago… today…
and 100 years into the future.
Being a John D. Rockefeller 100 years ago wouldn’t have gotten you an iPhone no matter how much money you threw at the problem (let’s say that you dreamed of such a device back then).
The problem isn’t one of having enough money to organize labour and resources.
The bigger problem is in knowing what to do.
In the past 100 years, mother nature hasn’t suddenly brought new elements into existence on Earth. Rather, it’s our knowledge of how to exploit those resources that has changed. Uranium has been on Earth for well over 6 billion years. Yet it’s only in the past century that we’ve understood how we can harness uranium for nuclear energy.
As knowledge plays a larger role in the transformations of society, so its value will continue to increase.
AI and the general advancement of thinking tools to assist in research, development and general decision making will enable greater productivity and understanding.
Society, business, & money are downstream of technology, which is itself downstream of science. Science applied is the engine of humanity.
Corollary: Applied Scientists are the most powerful people in the world. This will be more obvious in the coming years.
— Naval Ravikant