Will we wake up on time?
In 16th century France, a time considered as the rise of the modern era, Rabelais’s giant Pantagruel claimed that “Science without conscience is the soul’s perdition.” Four centuries later, Schumacher similarly wrote in his seminal work, Small is Beautiful, that “Every science is beneficial within its proper limits, but becomes evil and destructive as soon as it transgresses them.” Whilst the satirical giant of the French Renaissance jokingly highlights the consequences of over-consumption and debt to feed one’s ego, Schumacher went a step further asking thought and political leaders of his era to rethink economic growth in order to avoid a trajectory of destruction. Where, then, does the modern era stand today?
NATURAL CAPITAL
The opening chapters of Small is Beautiful describes an economic system much like today’s: a market economy where natural capital is not accounted for in the value equation, dominated by exponential growth fed by fossil fuels:
“If we squander our fossil fuels, we threaten civilization, but if we squander the capital represented by living nature around us, we threaten life itself.”
Schumacher introduced a term, though, that has led to decades of discussion on the real economic valuation of goods and services: natural capital. Natural capital recognizes that there are complex ecosystem services embedded in the resources used to produce goods. From air, to water, soil, and living organisms, natural capital provides humans with a range of services, which make human life possible. In 2000, the publication of the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment re-emphasized the urgency in redefining our economic system to consider natural capital. Since, initiatives have arisen aiming to value ecosystem services, and perhaps the most significant contribution has been the implementation of carbon taxes in a few European countries. Nevertheless, the systemic economic valuation change Schumacher called for nearly half a century ago, has yet to occur.
DE-MECHANIZING MAN
Throughout the book, Schumacher calls to the reader’s attention the risk of a mechanized industry, of monotonous work stripped of meaning:
“…modern technology has deprived man of the kind of work that he enjoys most, creative, useful work with hands and brains, and given him plenty of work of a fragmented kind, most of which he does not enjoy at all.”
Currently, across the world we are witness to mass systems of production that have converted humans into just an additional gear in the machine. Many in industrialized countries often lead lives completed unaware of the mechanized masses until a disastrous event shakes the conscious. For example, the 2013 collapse of the eight-floor Rana Plaza factory building in Bangladesh led to a global outcry on fast-fashion manufacturing.
Yet, as we move into the fourth industrial revolution, the World Economic Forum estimates that industrial manufacturing jobs will be replaced by robots and IA. The transition of human involvement in mechanized processes, to fully machine-led processes, liberates the mind and soul for intellectual feats. Recent expressions are the rise in small enterprises and the “maker’s space” movement. Maker’s space are test labs where creators meet to innovate and test new ideas using emerging technologies like 3D printing that facilitate rapid prototyping. Where intellect has been liberated from the boxes, creativity is unleashing.
VISION 2030
A decade ago the world entered a phase of global economic instability. Today, it would seem the world is amidst a phase of global political instability. We also have more access to and generate more scientific knowledge than ever. Are we then on the brink of both Rabelais’ and Schumacher’s premonitions of the misuse of science? I believe we are at a tipping point, at a crossroads where we adopt a vision of smaller, more harmonious, and beautiful world, shaped by an economy that takes into consideration natural capital and mechanized production systems disconnected from human labor; or we continue on the path to self-destruction.
