More from Less

It’s titled More from Less and subtitled, “The Surprising Story of How We Learned to Prosper Using Fewer Resources—And What Happens Next”. It’s book about how the world is going digital, and conveniently printed using a cutting-edge technology called paper.

The new book by MIT Sloan School Scientist Andrew McAfee challenges the notion that prosperity must inevitably destroy our planet. In his new book, he argues we’ve entered a new less resource intensive era. It’s from Simon & Schuster, my old publishers, so I can tell you from experience that almost everything around the S&S hallways is described as ‘groundbreaking’.  New book? Groundbreaking. Repairs to the leased photocopier? Groundbreaking. Refreshing a cup of coffee? Groundbreaking. A new way of describing something, drea,ed up by the publicity department? Groundbreaking.

Then, again, occasionally, a book comes along that makes every publicist wish they hadn’t sucked every ember of life out of the word ‘ground-breaking”, because this one’s a dazzler. 

More from Less: The Surprising Story of How We Learned to Prosper Using Fewer Resources—And What Happens Next, looks at how we, meaning rich countries, are able to grow while taking fewer resources out of the ground. McAfee brings forth the case of America—“a large, high-tech country that accounts for about 25% of the global economy—is now generally using less of most resources year after year, even as its economy and population continue to grow. This less resource intensive capitalism is a direct result of our switch to a digital economy where growth is now more likely to be dependent on bits than on atoms.”

OK, that’s written by the publicity department. I know, someone has neglected to point out that, er, bits are made from, um, parts of atoms. And sneering purists might point out that American has exported its resource dependency to developing nations and evolved into a finance economy which robs resource owners of their fair share of the value chain, hence our digital prosperity. But never mind.

“In the past,” argues McAfee, “we engaged in a lot of resource dependent capitalism and growth. The point that I am making is that the game is working differently now.  I think we are demonstrating that it is possible to grow an economy, grown more prosperous while taking fewer resources form the earth.  We can do this in large part because of the invention of the computer. Digital tools are now letting us swap bits for atoms, all over the economy. That’s good news for the planet and for the prosperity of future generations.“

Andrew McAfee is Principal Research Scientist, MIT Initiative on the Digital Economy, at the MIT Sloan School of Management.