BEHIND THE VEIL OF SCIENCE

One of the most dramatic changes that has occurred in our lifetime in the way we live and in the way that our societies have been organized is the expansion of information and knowledge and their applications to everyday life. The most recent manifestations of this process has been the communication revolution with its dazzling array of inventions such computer hardware and software, modems, fax machines, the internet, etc., and equally dazzling new concepts and ideas, such as the artificial intelligence, fuzzy logic, etc. Moreover, less dramatic, yet equally important, applications of new knowledge have occurred in such diverse economic sectors as transportation, construction, manufacturing, electronics, etc. The application of knowledge to the economic process has reached such a stage that some economists have been induced to “cash” on it. Naula Beck, for example, has achieved some short lived popularity with her newly developed topology based on the role of knowledge in economy. She divides the economy into an expanding, knowledge based “new economy” and a declining, resource based “old economy” with the former being essentially where the action is.