2017年2月28日火曜日

The Second Machine Age

  MIT Sloan members Erik Brynjolfsson and Andrew McAfee wrote a book called ”The Second Machine Age.” It is the sequel to their previous work, “Race Against the Machine.” It optimistically discusses whether humans can coexist with machines.
  
  “Chapter 8: Beyond GDP” is particularly important. Through the Internet things have become convenient, fun, and efficient; but that is not reflected in GDP. The book states that economic views which focus on GDP cannot analyze the current situation. The chapter has seven main points.

Point 1
         Due to the Internet, music proceeds declined 40% in four years and disappeared from economic statistics; however, quality rose, and people have come to listen to great quantities of quality music.

Point 2
         How can we measure the consumer surplus created by things and services? If a good thing bought at $1 becomes free, GDP has dropped $1 and consumer surplus has increased; but what is the relevant indicator?

Point 3
          If a price is zero, the numerical value is zero, but that does not mean it is worthless. Free things like Internet searches and transactions are beneficial to life satisfaction and the shareconomy, but such things are not reflected in GDP. The book says that economic satisfaction is not reflected in GDP.

Point 4
           The information sector accounts for 4% of GDP, which has not changed since the latter half of the 80s. ”The official statistics are missing a growing share of the real value created in our economy.”

Point 5
            How can we measure the resource known as time? Americans’ Internet usage has doubled in ten years. The value of time is turning to the Internet. In 2012, Facebook usage time was ten times as many person-hours as were required to construct the Panama canal. This is not being counted in GDP statistics.

Point 6
            Production hereafter will rely upon the four abstract goods of intellectual property, organizational capital, UGC, and human capital, all of which GDP statistics entirely ignore.

Point 7
            Thus, people are seeking solutions and new methods of index creation, examples of which can be seen in the United Nations Development Programme’s Human Development Index and OECD projects.

    There is a question of whether to stress IT-related industry expansion or consumer surplus, and there is an identical dispute between the Internet and content.
                Ten years ago, I objected to the government’s installation of a landmark “industrial scale expansion” policy. Stress should have been placed on such things as content production and consumption amounts.

 Ultimately, the scope of the Japanese content industry plan is being curtailed, but we cannot conclude that content is becoming obsolete. Everyone is transmitting an exponentially increasing volume of information.

              This was also pointed out ten years ago when Stanford Japan launched a pop power project for pop culture soft power: Stanford needed to create an index with a focus not on GNP, but GNPP!

               Of course, GNPP (Gross National Pop Power) was imitated at the onset Cool Japan, Douglas McGray’s  Gross National Japan Cool. But indexification was beyond my capabilities and it did not go well.

                I anticipate the creation of new indexes implicated by “The Second Machine Age,” such as those of the UN and OECD; but I am even more strongly wondering whether I should try again to create an index for the new Internet age.

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