Overview

In The Zero Marginal Cost Society, New York Times bestselling author Jeremy Rifkin argues that the capitalist era is passing-not quickly, but inevitably. The emerging Internet of Things is giving rise to a new economic system that will transform our way of life. In this provocative new book, Rifkin argues that the coming together of the Communication Internet with the fledgling Energy Internet and Logistics Internet in a seamless twenty-first-century intelligent infrastructure-the Internet of Things-is boosting productivity to the point where the marginal cost of producing many goods and services is nearly zero, making them essentially free. The result is that corporate profits are beginning to dry up, property rights are weakening, and the conventional mind-set of scarcity is slowly giving way to the possibility of abundance. The zero marginal cost phenomenon is spawning a hybrid economy-part capitalist market and part collaborative commons-with far-reaching implications for society. Rifkin describes how hundreds of millions of people are already transferring parts of their economic lives from capitalist markets to what he calls the global Collaborative Commons. Prosumers are making and sharing their own information, entertainment, green energy, and 3-D printed products at near zero marginal cost. They are also sharing cars, homes, clothes, and other items via social media sites, redistribution clubs, and cooperatives at low or near zero marginal cost. Students are even enrolling in free MOOCs, massive open online courses that operate at near zero marginal cost. And young social entrepreneurs are establishing ecologically sensitive businesses using crowdfunding as well as creating alternative currencies in the new sharing economy. In this new world, social capital is as important as financial capital, access trumps ownership, cooperation supersedes competition, and exchange value in the capitalist marketplace is increasingly replaced by sharable value on the Collaborative Commons. Rifkin concludes that while capitalism will be with us for the foreseeable future, albeit in an increasingly diminished role, it will not be the dominant economic paradigm by the second half of the twenty-first century. We are, Rifkin says, entering a world beyond markets, where we are learning how to live together in an increasingly interdependent global Collaborative Commons.

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9781483006413

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Reviews

The Zero Marginal Cost Society confirms Jeremy Rifkin as peerless visionary of technological trends. The future arrives only to fill in the sketches that Rifkin so ably draws. I highly recommend as a cure for those who are perplexed about the future of technology. -- Calestous Juma, Harvard Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, John F. Kennedy School of Government The Zero Marginal Cost Society is admirable in its scope. Rifkin offers a wide-ranging overview of the kind of tech advances that will redefine how many people live in the coming decades. -- Fortune A comprehensive exploration of the implications of anyone being able to make anything. -- Neil Gershenfeld, director, MIT Center for Bits and Atoms If you want to understand why we are in the midst of a massive paradigm shift from an age of top-down, centralized institutions to a world of distributed and collaborative power, I would highly recommend reading Jeremy Rifkin's new book. He clearly joins the dots on how the likes of 3D printing, crowdfunding, and online education platforms are all connected and describes the disruptions that lie just around the corner for most sectors. -- Rachel Botsman, author of What's Mine Is Yours: How Collaborative Consumption Is Changing the Way We Live Intriguing. -- Kirkus Reviews Jeremy Rifkin offers an ambitious and optimistic image of how a commons-based, collaborative model of the economy could displace industrial capitalism when the economic and social practices of the Internet are extended to energy, logistics, and material fabrication. Even skeptical readers, concerned with the ubiquitous surveillance and exquisite social control that these same technologies enable, should find the vision exhilarating and its exposition thought provoking. -- Yochai Benkler, Harvard Law School This breathtaking book connects some of today's most compelling technology-driven trends into a five-hundred-year spiral from commons to capitalism and back. Rifkin has produced an intellectual joyride that takes us to the threshold of a new economic order. -- Kevin Werbach, Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania This is a thought-provoking read that pushes some of the most important new technologies to their logical-and sometimes scary-conclusions. -- Financial Times

This breathtaking book connects some of today's most compelling technology-driven trends into a five-hundred-year spiral from commons to capitalism and back. Rifkin has produced an intellectual joyride that takes us to the threshold of a new economic order. -- Kevin Werbach, Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania The Zero Marginal Cost Society confirms Jeremy Rifkin as peerless visionary of technological trends. The future arrives only to fill in the sketches that Rifkin so ably draws. I highly recommend as a cure for those who are perplexed about the future of technology. -- Calestous Juma, Harvard Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, John F. Kennedy School of Government A comprehensive exploration of the implications of anyone being able to make anything. -- Neil Gershenfeld, director, MIT Center for Bits and Atoms If you want to understand why we are in the midst of a massive paradigm shift from an age of top-down, centralized institutions to a world of distributed and collaborative power, I would highly recommend reading Jeremy Rifkin's new book. He clearly joins the dots on how the likes of 3D printing, crowdfunding, and online education platforms are all connected and describes the disruptions that lie just around the corner for most sectors. -- Rachel Botsman, author of What's Mine Is Yours: How Collaborative Consumption Is Changing the Way We Live Jeremy Rifkin offers an ambitious and optimistic image of how a commons-based, collaborative model of the economy could displace industrial capitalism when the economic and social practices of the Internet are extended to energy, logistics, and material fabrication. Even skeptical readers, concerned with the ubiquitous surveillance and exquisite social control that these same technologies enable, should find the vision exhilarating and its exposition thought provoking. -- Yochai Benkler, Harvard Law School Intriguing. -- Kirkus Reviews The Zero Marginal Cost Society is admirable in its scope. Rifkin offers a wide-ranging overview of the kind of tech advances that will redefine how many people live in the coming decades. -- Fortune This is a thought-provoking read that pushes some of the most important new technologies to their logical-and sometimes scary-conclusions. -- Financial Times

This is a thought-provoking read that pushes some of the most important new technologies to their logical-and sometimes scary-conclusions. -- Financial Times The Zero Marginal Cost Society is admirable in its scope. Rifkin offers a wide-ranging overview of the kind of tech advances that will redefine how many people live in the coming decades. -- Fortune Intriguing. -- Kirkus Reviews Jeremy Rifkin offers an ambitious and optimistic image of how a commons-based, collaborative model of the economy could displace industrial capitalism when the economic and social practices of the Internet are extended to energy, logistics, and material fabrication. Even skeptical readers, concerned with the ubiquitous surveillance and exquisite social control that these same technologies enable, should find the vision exhilarating and its exposition thought provoking. -- Yochai Benkler, Harvard Law School If you want to understand why we are in the midst of a massive paradigm shift from an age of top-down, centralized institutions to a world of distributed and collaborative power, I would highly recommend reading Jeremy Rifkin's new book. He clearly joins the dots on how the likes of 3D printing, crowdfunding, and online education platforms are all connected and describes the disruptions that lie just around the corner for most sectors. -- Rachel Botsman, author of What's Mine Is Yours: How Collaborative Consumption Is Changing the Way We Live A comprehensive exploration of the implications of anyone being able to make anything. -- Neil Gershenfeld, director, MIT Center for Bits and Atoms The Zero Marginal Cost Society confirms Jeremy Rifkin as peerless visionary of technological trends. The future arrives only to fill in the sketches that Rifkin so ably draws. I highly recommend as a cure for those who are perplexed about the future of technology. -- Calestous Juma, Harvard Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, John F. Kennedy School of Government This breathtaking book connects some of today's most compelling technology-driven trends into a five-hundred-year spiral from commons to capitalism and back. Rifkin has produced an intellectual joyride that takes us to the threshold of a new economic order. -- Kevin Werbach, Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania

Author Information

Jeremy Rifkin, one of the most popular social thinkers of our time, is the bestselling author of numerous books, including The Third Industrial Revolution, The Empathic Civilization, The European Dream, The Age of Access, The Hydrogen Economy, The Biotech Century, and The End of Work. His books have been translated into more than thirty-five languages. Rifkin is an advisor to the European Union and to heads of state around the world. He is a senior lecturer at the Wharton School's executive education program at the University of Pennsylvania and the president of the Foundation on Economic Trends. David Cochran Heath is a professional actor with more than 30 years of experience on the stage in over 130 productions. He is also a lifelong fan of radio theater and has done a variety of narration and character work. He lives in San Diego with his wife, Beth.

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