The World After Capital details humanity's shift from an age of capital scarcity to one of attention scarcity. It proposes a framework for the Knowledge Age built on economic freedom through Universal Basic Income, informational freedom through open access to knowledge, and psychological freedom through mindfulness. The book argues these shifts are necessary to solve the climate crisis and ensure that digital technology serves human progress rather than trapping attention in a vicious job loop.
The World After Capital argues that humanity is exiting the Industrial Age and entering the Knowledge Age, a transition marked by a shift in scarcity from physical capital to human attention. Digital technology has made physical capital sufficient to meet global needs through zero marginal cost and universality of computation. However, the current economic system, defined by the job loop and market-based allocation, is ill-equipped to manage the scarcity of attention, leading to misallocation, wealth concentration, and a crisis of meaning. To navigate this transition safely and avoid climate catastrophe or social collapse, society must expand three fundamental freedoms.
Economic freedom is the first pillar, proposed through a Universal Basic Income (UBI). UBI decouples survival from the job loop, allowing individuals to pursue purpose and participate in the knowledge loop without the threat of destitution. This is affordable through tax reform, closing loopholes, and shifting money creation from banks to people. Informational freedom requires removing artificial barriers to knowledge, such as excessive copyright and patent laws, and ensuring net neutrality. It also advocates for user-controlled bots and APIs to shift power from centralized platforms back to individuals. Psychological freedom focuses on individual action through mindfulness and self-regulation to resist the attention-trapping mechanisms of modern digital platforms.
This transition is underpinned by a renewed humanism that prioritizes critical inquiry, solidarity, and responsibility. By embracing these freedoms and values, humanity can move from a society of forced labor and positional consumption to one focused on learning, creating, and sharing knowledge. This shift is essential not only for solving the climate crisis but also for preparing for the emergence of transhumans and artificial general intelligence. The ultimate goal is a world where human attention is freed from survival tasks to explore the universe, eliminate disease, and achieve a state of capital abundance.