Per the Mad Max series of films, gasoline, then water.
More seriously, “information” stretches the definition of “resource”, as it’s not scarce per-se, but very hard to absorb and use correctly. And the resources necessary in previous eras remain quite necessary, just in different quantities and uses. I’d predict this will continue—there will be future organizations and uses of information that are different today, and it probably won’t be called “the information age”, so historians can make a living analyzing it, but it’ll still be about knowledge and organization of the mechanics of life.
Information is not scarce, but relevant good and not distracting information is scarce in the sense that it is very difficult to separate the grain from the chaff. So good information can be considered scarce independently of it being hard to adsorb or to use correctly, no?
Per the Mad Max series of films, gasoline, then water.
More seriously, “information” stretches the definition of “resource”, as it’s not scarce per-se, but very hard to absorb and use correctly. And the resources necessary in previous eras remain quite necessary, just in different quantities and uses. I’d predict this will continue—there will be future organizations and uses of information that are different today, and it probably won’t be called “the information age”, so historians can make a living analyzing it, but it’ll still be about knowledge and organization of the mechanics of life.
Information is not scarce, but relevant good and not distracting information is scarce in the sense that it is very difficult to separate the grain from the chaff. So good information can be considered scarce independently of it being hard to adsorb or to use correctly, no?