What is a Superpower in the Age of Information?

We’re only a few days away from witnessing one of the formerly most prosperous nations on earth become an official Has Been on the list of global economic superpowers. Which makes us wonder: just when will China officially become the new economic global leader? And more importantly, how will this affect technological development?

China has a fairly restrictive policy when it comes to information sharing. In a recent initiative, the Chinese government is now requiring hotels, cafes, and other businesses in Beijing to install surveillance technology on their WiFi networks. Not surprisingly, many businesses are opting out of providing the service because the monitoring technology is so expensive. But unlike any other industry, the internet is not regionally based. Numerous open data movements across the globe have proved that information sharing can still thrive, regardless of any one government’s restrictive policy.

Information is increasingly becoming a source of tremendous revenue. As we discussed in this blog yesterday, cloud computing is a $40 billion dollar industry, and is projected to grow substantially in the next decade. In an information economy, it may be technically impossible for there to be a “superpower” in the traditional sense of the term.

While governments can restrict access to information, they can’t control the generation of it, at least not anymore. Web portals are easy to set up. There are literally billions of mobile phones all around the globe capable of receiving messages instantly. In short, information can’t be caged. It’s out there, and people know how to find it.

While China may quickly overtake the U.S. as the number 1 world economy, something has fundamentally changed about how economies operate. They move far more quickly than they used to. Sustainability in business has come to mean a few years to a decade before the model itself must undergo significant revision to remain competitive. The world is unlikely to experience another extended period of relative stability for the next few decades at least. Innovation and hyper-accelerated change describe the new economic drivers of the 21st century. Attempting to block these drivers will only result in economic paralysis. Welcome to the information age.