Information age?

We are living in the 'Information Age.' What is 'information age' anyway? What age were we living in before? and what is next?

Seems as if the world has many ages: stone age, bronze age, information age, etc. When 'stone age' is mentioned, one tends to think of a period when humans widely used stones as weapons, tools, etc. Similar to stone age, bronze age is when humans developed the capacity to work with and make use of metals. Following this line of though, information age would be the time period when humans developed the capacity to make use of information? Well and good, just one problem: information is not an object. Information has always been important. In the stone age information regarding good hunting grounds, pastures, water supplies, must be very valuable. In a sense, the stone age people were living in the information age as well since they relied heavily on information just like us. Then why is it that we get to live in the 'information age' and not the stone man.

How about we take a different perspective. A perspective where communities of humans competing for domination are at the center. In this perspective stone age means that the group of humans who championed the use of stones dominate all other groups. Communities living on stone rich lands are more prosperous compared to others and knowledge regarding stones is highly coveted. The advent of bronze age causes a shift of power from the stone people to the metal people. Now the communities who championed metalwork dominate humanity.

Viewing from this perspective, being in the information age suggests that the group of humans with better information is likely to dominate all the rest. Stone and metal are still important, but also plentiful. Information is the key to domination. Here are two examples.

Television Ads. Yesterday, there use to be a black and white television with one and only channel. If you were interested in selling a kids product, you could easily buy the advertisement spot during the cartoons and get the attention of your target audience. Today, with over hundred channels, information regarding who is watching what and when is important to best place a television ad.

Airbus vs Boeing. Recently Airbus reveled its latest airliner the A380, while Boeing is aggressively marketing its latest airliner the 7E7. Both airliners are very different, the A380 being the largest in the world and 7E7 being mid-sized and fuel efficient. The sole reason for this difference is information. Airbus based its design on information which suggested that the future of air travel will require a huge airliner to transport very large number of passengers between major world airports. Boeing based its design on information which suggested that the future of air travel will require a mid-size fuel efficient airliner to transport a moderate number of passengers between small airports. The aircraft manufacturer with the correct information will dominate the other.

So what is next? We cannot really tell. The world could go back to the materials age(stone, metal, etc), for example, the group of people possessing Uranium or Plutonium will dominate the world? Or, it can be something new, like the Energy age, where the group best able to harness and manipulate energy will be on the top. If information becomes commonplace it may lead to the knowledge age, where information in conjunction with know how will dictate who is on top. Communication age or transportation and logistics age are sounding good too.