Reverse Gutenberg Galaxy: Digital Transformation of Economy and Labor

The slides I used for my paper presentation at FTC (Future Technologies Conference) 2022 on October 21, 2022.

Transcript

1. This image was generated by Stable Diffusion using the paper title below
   Reverse Gutenberg Galaxy:
   Digital Transformation of Economy and Labor
   Kenji Saito
   Graduate School of Business and Finance, Waseda University
   Reverse Gutenberg Galaxy: Digital Transformation of Economy and Labor – p.1/8
   

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2. Introduction
   This review paper describes digital transformation as a shift in civilization, or
   changes from agricultural or industrial society
   Which is based on the division of labor, where people are standardized as parts and
   used by others
   To a new form of hunter-gatherer society
   Where people no longer use others and live in an economy that interacts with
   digitally augmented nature (Meta-Nature)
   It identifies how the following buzzing concepts can (not ) be useful :
   Blockchain and smart contracts (censorship-resistant ledgers, program code, and data)
   DeFi, NFT, DAO (applications on finance, certified tickets, and decentralized autonomous organizations)
   Web3 (decentralized management of information, and tokenization of everything)
   Metaverse (digital twins and user-generated worlds)
   Reverse Gutenberg Galaxy: Digital Transformation of Economy and Labor – p.2/8
   

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3. Information Systems, Society and Future Shift
   Today
   Hardware
   Apps
   Computer
   usage
   Users
   Approaching
   Misfit
   Changes
   beginning
   to be visible
   DX
   OS
   Human
   Businesses
   Earth
   Human
   Meta-Nature
   (Highly-automated decentralized
   social environment)
   Earth
   Second half of this century?
   Financial System Automation System
   Reverse Gutenberg Galaxy: Digital Transformation of Economy and Labor – p.3/8
   

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4. Tetrad : The Four Questions
   (ENH) enhancement : What does it enhance, enable, or accelerate?
   (OBS) obsolescence : What does it make obsolete?
   (RET) retrieval : What does it restore in a new form that was once obsolete?
   (REV) reversal : What does it turn into when pushed to extremes?
   This tool by McLuhan can recapture the effects of movable type he illustrated in his book
   “Gutenberg Galaxy”
   And further, it can depict the social changes caused by digital media, which is a
   reversal of movable type
   Then, by applying this tool to the monetary economy, we can discuss from a
   macroscopic perspective
   How digital transformation will change the current agricultural / industrial society
   Reverse Gutenberg Galaxy: Digital Transformation of Economy and Labor – p.4/8
   

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5. Tetrad of Movable Type
   Fixed points of view
   Massive homogeneous
   replications
   Censored / out of print
   Digital media
   Perspectives of each
   Indivisual constructions
   Mosaic and participatory media
   ENH REV
   RET OBS
   Renaissance
   Books as auditory media
   Handwritten manuscripts
   Paradigm of the era
   New paradigm
   enhancement
   obsolescence
   retrieval
   reversal
   Reverse Gutenberg Galaxy: Digital Transformation of Economy and Labor – p.5/8
   

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6. Tetrad of Monetary Economy
   Paradigm of the era
   New paradigm
   ENH REV
   RET OBS
   enhancement
   obsolescence
   retrieval
   reversal
   Exchange, Consumption, Saving, Investment
   Specialization
   Agricultural / Industrial Society
   Economic Gaps, Exploitation, Bankruptcy
   Bullshit Jobs
   Deliberation DAO Meta-Nature
   Domination and Obedience
   Hierarchy
   Profit Maximization
   Trust, Sharing, Gift Economy
   Omnipotence
   Hunter-Gatherer Society
   Reverse Gutenberg Galaxy: Digital Transformation of Economy and Labor – p.6/8
   

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7. Three-Way Relationship and Its Disruption
   DX
   “Perspectives of each”
   “Individual constructions”
   “Perspectives
   of each”
   “Individual
   constructions”
   “Perspectives
   of each”
   “Individual
   constructions”
   Automation, Efficiency,
   Inclusion and Democratization
   Omnipotence
   Security
   by
   the State
   Money
   Specialization
   of Expertise
   Market
   (division of labor)
   support
   support
   support
   finance
   issue taxes
   Reverse Gutenberg Galaxy: Digital Transformation of Economy and Labor – p.7/8
   

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8. Conclusions
   This review paper considered the possibility that digital information
   communication technologies and their interaction with society will bring about
   the end of agricultural / industrial society in the near future, forming the
   reverse Gutenberg galaxy, so to speak
   And that money will decline as the division of labor becomes obsolete and labor itself
   is transformed
   It raises questions about our choices
   It asks whether a future in which we abandon the monetary system, as foreseen in
   this paper, is indeed possible
   And whether we can accept such a future
   This work was supported by JSPS KAKENHI Grant Number JP21H04872
   Reverse Gutenberg Galaxy: Digital Transformation of Economy and Labor – p.8/8
   

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