Information is Power said mams

The futurist, Alvin Toffler— best known for his book Future Shock — wrote a book in 1990 entitled “Powershift — Knowledge, Wealth and Violence at the edge of the 21st Century“ (seePowershift (book) - Wikipedia). In that book Toffler described three types of power:

1. Force (physical power)
2. Wealth (economic power)
3. Knowledge (the power of information)

Or, as his chapter 2 title says: Muscle, Money and Mind!

Most of us learn about force very early. Whether it’s from parental punishment, bullying, or watching Hollywood movies, we all come to understand that violence, or the threat of violence, is powerful. Criminals use it. Gangs use it. Terrorists use it. Good guys use it when they have no other choice. Society strongly discourages us from using it. The power of force predates civilization, and its unsanctioned use is considered to be uncivilized.

The invention of money, as a flexible means of facilitating trade, provided a new type of power — one that could be even more powerful and flexible than force, because it could be used to buy force. And, unlike force, because it could be used both as a carrot and as a stick. With wealth, you can induce people to do things willingly, rather than “force” them. While force is rather individualized, wealth is something that can be accumulated. With enough money, you can buy an army. Or just buy what you want. Or buy out whomever has what you want if they won’t let you have it. Wealth usually trumps force, when it comes to power conflicts.

Toffler observed that throughout most of history, the power of force reigned supreme. The industrial revolution, though, was a transformative period in more ways that just technology. It also caused a shift from force as the primary type of power in society to wealth as the new and preferred means to exert power. Use of force became regulated by law.

Following World War II, and with the rapid development of communications and computers, Toffler believes another shift began — from wealth as the primary power to information as the new power of choice. Wealth transformed from being predominantly land-based to becoming more generalized as “capital”, held by individuals and companies. The new Information Age quickly reveal the versatility of knowledge.

Information, as power, has some unique qualities.

• Unlike wealth, which was originally based on land ownership and is still based on ownership of finite resources, the pool of potential knowledge in the world is virtually inexhaustible.
• Information is valuable for trade when you have it and someone else wants it. But, if that information becomes known to others — if you lose exclusive control of it — then it becomes nearly worthless to you for trade. However, it still remains useful to you for other things.
• Information, unlike goods, cost nothing to move around.
• Information can be shared, and then used over and over again, without exhaustion. It is effectively an infinite resource.
• Information may become valueless as a result of some new information that supercedes or invalidates it. That doesn’t happen with money — except in cases of total economic collapse.

Those are just a few ways information, as a source of power, is unique and different from the other types of power. With the right information, you can overcome someone else’s wealth, or their ability to use force.

Information truly is power. And as Toffler predicted in 1990, it has become the predominant source of power in society today.

Knowledge is power. Information is power. The secreting or hoarding of knowledge or information may be an act of tyranny camouflaged as humility.