Strategic Question 2:
What AngelBase products will be offered, and what will they achieve technologically, economically and culturally that existing technologies cannot achieve and that will drive a Light-filled transformation of the computing industry and other industries?
7 AngelBase Products
11 Revolutionary Achievements
The answer to the question is structured as follows. We first list our Seven AngelBase Products without explanation, and then we present a table of Eleven Revolutionary Achievements. Each Achievement is elaborated below the table.
For each Achievement, we identify its primary area(s) of impact: technological, economic and/or cultural. Detailed explanations of the Seven AngelBase Products are incorporated (as appropriate) within several of the Eleven Revolutionary Achievements.
AngelBase Product List
When AngelBase software has been implemented, we will launch the following products:
1. Free AngelBase Client Software (no revenues)
2. Registered AngelBase Client Software
3. Registered Data Village Usage
4. AngelBase Server Software
5. AngelBase Economic Transaction Services
6. AngelBase Application License Tracking Service.
And later, when the AngelMachine has been implemented in hardware:
7. AngelBase Hardware Technology Licenses.
Six of these Products will produce revenue streams to our Angelic Realms, that will, in turn yield grants to Angelic Missions.
Table of Achievements
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Revolutionary Achievement 1: Primary impact: |
Programmer efficiency will increase by a factor of ten or more. |
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Revolutionary Achievement 2: Primary impact: |
People who are experts in the domain of usage of a system (and who are not programmers), will be empowered to evolve the system into increasingly better forms. |
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Revolutionary Achievement 3: Primary impact: |
A host of powerful new data organization and data viewing methodologies are built right into the database engine and available to all users of all applications. |
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Revolutionary Achievement 4: Primary impact: |
All data will be on-line and accurate in real time. |
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Revolutionary Achievement 5: Primary impact: Products 1, 2, 3 and 4 explained here. |
An application system is not a program. Instead, an application is a data village (angels + base). The only program is AngelBase itself, which everybody runs. |
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Revolutionary Achievement 6: Primary impact: Product 5 explained here. |
AngelBase will revolutionize accounting of and payment for information services. |
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Revolutionary Achievement 7: Primary impact: |
AngelBase Transfer Protocol (ABTP) will replace HTTP as the basis for the Internet. Websites will be replaced with AngelSitesTM. The World Wide Web will evolve into the Global Mega-Database. |
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Revolutionary Achievement 8: Primary impact: Product 6 explained here. |
AngelBase will support a complex new multi-level model for the evolution and proliferation of highly customized database applications. |
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Revolutionary Achievement 9: Primary impact: |
AngelBase will give rise to a new phenomenon called "Information Resonance" which will bring a quantum leap in user empowerment and effectiveness. |
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Revolutionary Achievement 10: Primary impact: Product 7 explained here. |
The First Computing Epoch of single-processor "von Neumann machines" began in 1945 and has continued through today. The AngelMachineTM, with its massively parallel processing, will usher in the Second Computing Epoch. Revolutionary new computer hardware will emerge. |
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Revolutionary Achievement 11: Primary impact: |
AngelBase is anticipated to introduce two significant power shifts into our modern civilization. One is a healthy decentralization, and the other is a benevolent centralization. |
Revolutionary Achievement 1:
Programmer efficiency
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Primary impact: |
Programmer efficiency will increase by a factor of ten or more. |
AngelBase will empower programmers to develop new database applications and to modify existing applications at least ten times more rapidly than with the best existing development technologies and methodologies. This greatly improved efficiency will result in significant cost savings. It will also make it possible to undertake more complex projects than have never before been attempted.
Revolutionary Achievement 2:
User Empowerment
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Primary impact: |
People who are experts in the domain of usage of a system (and who are not programmers), will be empowered to evolve the system into increasingly better forms. |
Under existing technology, the way applications work in the production environment (and how business runs as a result) can only be altered by programmers.
When a change is necessary, it must be made by programmers, and then a new version of the application must be rolled into production. If a user has an idea for improving his process (i.e. the way he does his work) which requires a change in the application, well...forget it!
Hundreds of millions of corporate employees are stuck today with whatever business applications they are given on their computers. Perhaps they can occasionally participate in focus groups which influence the next version of the system, and if they're lucky, they might see a few of their ideas appear in a newly released system a year or two down the road.
Even top corporate executives are confined by this paradigm and must wait for the slow process of programmer implementation of system changes.
All this profoundly limits the agility of organizations to respond to changes in the business climate, to improve internal processes, and to capitalize on the good ideas of employees.
AngelBase will totally change all this.
Once an AngelBase application is initially released by programmers into the production environment, it will continue to evolve and change at the hands of the user community--while it is running.
Each end user will have the ability to make changes to the system, subject only to his individual authorization (e.g. we don't want to authorize a salesman to change the formula that calculates his own commission and bonus).
As users experiment with their new ideas, some ideas will prove to be good and others not so good. The bad ones will fall by the wayside. But the good ones will propagate. Coworkers and bosses will see a new and valuable screen that someone has created, and will want copies so they can also use it. Then other people will make improvements on the improvements.
For the first time in the history of the computing industry, the people who are experts in the domain of usage of the system, will be empowered to evolve the system into increasingly better forms.
And all this will happen at runtime in the production environment, without ever requiring a rollover. True synergy will result.
Revolutionary Achievement 3:
Advanced Methodology
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Primary impact: |
A host of powerful new data organization and data viewing methodologies are built right into the database engine and available to all users of all applications. |
AngelBase directly supports a host of powerful data organization and data viewing methodologies, which are built right into the database engine and available to all users of all applications. These include:
complex topological graphs (called "lattices" in AngelBase),
complex variant records,
automatically-created database-driven spreadsheets,
automatic synchronization of markers and filtering between multiple sets of interrelated records,
a combinatorial explosion in the ways data can be searched, sorted and filtered for display,
creation of sophisticated new screens in endless combinations,
support of phantom data which has not yet been transacted into the database (so users can see complex effects that would occur before finalizing the transaction), and
many other advanced concepts.
Revolutionary Achievement 4:
Speed and Accuracy
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Primary impact: |
All data will be on-line and accurate in real time. |
All data in AngelBase will be on-line and accurate in real time. There are no batch jobs in AngelBase. (Note: in any system where batch jobs are involved, such as the typical banking system, the data is never really accurate.)
The longstanding trend in computing has been for the volume of data to expand. Fortunately, the capacity of hardware (including network transmission capacity) has grown at least as fast. However, AngelBase will express a much richer and more complex set of data in a much smaller space. The result is faster performance in real time. And AngelBase "meta-data" contains an unprecedented level of information to protect data from errors.
Revolutionary Achievement 5:
Data Villages
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Primary impact: Products 1, 2, 3 and 4 explained here. |
An application system is not a program. Instead, an application is a data village (angels + base). The only program is AngelBase itself, which everybody runs. |
Unlike existing technology, an AngelBase application is not a program. Instead, the application is a data village (angels + base = data village). The only program is AngelBase itself, which everybody runs. Thus, the same AngelBase program runs all the different AngelBase applications. Every computer will have to have a copy of either the AngelBase client program or the AngelBase server program, both of which will be downloaded over the Internet from our AngelBase product server.
Product 1: Free AngelBase Client Software
AngelBase clients will be massively distributed, free of charge, world-wide, in unregistered form (like Shareware), and everyone will have the opportunity to play with and learn about AngelBase, to use free applications that come with the client, and to create their own experimental applications. However, there are limits.
Product 2: Registered AngelBase Client Software
Whenever usage of an AngelBase client begins to exceed a certain minimum threshold (defined in terms of database size, data village complexity and/or data flow volume) it must be assigned a unique AngelBase Client Signature ID, be registered via Internet with the AngelBase Master Registry, and periodic charges will apply based upon usage.
Product 3: Registered Data Village Usage
People may use AngelBase (in either free or registered form) to create data villages, but again there are limits. Every data village (i.e. application) that exceeds a certain minimum size and/or complexity will be assigned a unique Data Village Signature ID which must be registered via Internet with the AngelBase Master Registry. Periodic fees will be charged for registered applications, based upon usage.
Product 4: AngelBase Server Software
Pricing models for AngelBase servers will depend upon the operating system, the hardware, and will involve a combination of initial purchase price and periodic usage charges that are based upon the amount of data stored, the number and complexity of the data villages hosted on the server, and the volume of data served. Every server will be assigned a unique AngelBase Server Signature ID which will be registered with the AngelBase Master Registry. The AngelBase software will monitor usage and make periodic usage reports (via Internet) to the Registry, and customers will be charged accordingly.
Revolutionary Achievement 6:
Payment System
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Primary impact: Product 5 explained here. |
AngelBase will revolutionize accounting of and payment for information services. |
The AngelBase software will contain a sophisticated, micro-economic accounting system that communicates (via Internet) with our secure servers and can track charges of tiny fractions of a penny for any sort of activity that occurs, depending upon how things are configured. The charges will get pooled into amounts that are large enough for financial transactions before being sent over the Internet.
There are three principle categories of economic transactions which move through the system. First there are the charges that we make to our AngelBase customers.
Product 5: AngelBase Economic Transaction Services
The second and third categories of economic transactions are made between other parties who are running AngelBase (as explained below in Revolutionary Achievement 8) for which we will charge a small service fee.
Revolutionary Achievement 7:
AngelSites on the Internet
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Primary impact: |
AngelBase Transfer Protocol (ABTP) will replace HTTP as the basis for the Internet. Websites will be replaced with AngelSitesTM. The World Wide Web will evolve into the Global Mega-Database. |
AngelBase will revolutionize the Internet. This will be explained in the context of four distinct "delivery scenarios" by which one party (a vendor) can use AngelBase to deliver information to a second party (its customer).
Delivery Scenario 1:
The vendor can create a data village and deliver a copy of the data village (via Internet) to its customers. This is analogous to a software vendor delivering shrink-wrapped applications software to its customers. When various customers receive the data village and use it with their AngelBase software, then the customers will each have entirely independent copies of the data village, which will get independently populated with data, and will evolve and change (at the hands of the customers), completely independently from one another (as well as independently from the vendor).
Delivery Scenario 2:
The vendor can use AngelBase to create an ordinary Website which serves HTTP over the Internet to traditional HTML-based browsers. In this case the customer receives information in the same manner as happens on the Web today, except that the Web pages served are coming out of AngelBase.
"HTTP" means "Hyper-Text Transfer Protocol" and "HTML" means "Hyper-Text Markup Language."
Delivery Scenario 3:
AngelBase clients will contain a new generation of non-HTML-based browser, which is fully integrated with AngelBase's powerful database management facilities and which utilizes the new AngelBase Transfer Protocol ("ABTP") which is vastly more efficient and powerful than HTTP/HTML. By utilizing an AngelBase browser, people will be able to experience the new generation of Websites (called AngelSites).
Angelsite "surfers" will be able to literally get into the data village on the server and use the full power of AngelBase to explore and research the information provided by the vendor (subject only to fire-walls and required authorizations). The user is simply another client of the portion of the application that the vendor has chosen to place into public view on the Internet. Angels can be used to distinguish between free and paid data access by customers.
(Note: the AngelBase browser will be able to view traditional HTTP Websites. But traditional browsers will not be able to view Angelsites--if they try to do so, they will get an HTML-based message with a button to download the free AngelBase client to use as their next-generation browser. Once AngelBase is on a person's machine, he or she will get drawn more deeply into its phenomenal power.)
Delivery Scenario 4:
AngelBase Transfer Protocol (ABTP) will support the formal linking of one data village with another, with full referential integrity. In this way, the customer can do something far more powerful than merely browsing the vendor's data village. Now, if the customer has his/her own data village set up and running, he/she can make formal links to connect his/her data village to the vendor's data village.
A vendor can set up an Angelsite for the explicit purpose of selling information to customers who are invited to formally link their own data villages to the vendor site. When the vendor makes changes in its data, the changes are automatically and efficiently propagated to its thousands of customers, right into their application systems. Without unduly burdening the Internet, customers experience these updates as if they occurred in real time.
When two parties create a formal link between their data villages, a "treaty" must be established in AngelBase between the data villages, which defines the rules of data sharing, any necessary fire walls, and the accounting and costs to be paid between the parties. Once the treaty is established, then the customer can begin making formal links into the vendor's data village. The vendor's database is thus fully integrated with the customer's database. And it doesn't have to be a vendor/customer relationship--the linkage might instead be between two industry partners, with complex linkages going in both directions.
As this "Delivery Scenario 4" phenomenon proliferates on a global scale, the World Wide Web (which is based on HTTP broadcast from "Websites" by "Web servers") will gradually evolve into the Global Mega-Database (which is based upon ABTP broadcast from "Angelsites" by AngelBase servers).
Revolutionary Achievement 8:
Application Proliferation
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Primary impact: Product 6 explained here. |
AngelBase will support a complex new multi-level model for the evolution and proliferation of highly customized database applications. |
Product 6: AngelBase Application License Tracking Service
In Delivery Scenario 1, when one party (a software vendor) creates a data village, it can license a copy of the data village to its customers (whom we will call first-tier customers). The AngelBase Master Registry will track these licenses (based upon the Data Village Signature ID). Then, if a first-tier customer makes significant modifications to the data village, the data village will be assigned a new Data Village Signature ID, as a "child" of the previous "parent" Data Village Signature ID. The revised data village can then be licensed by the first-tier customer (who now becomes a vendor) to other second-tier customers. A small fee will be charged to application vendors for this license tracking service, which is provided by the AngelBase Master Registry.
The AngelBase Master Registry will provide a detailed accounting of usage by data village customers, with such accounting accessible to both licensor and licensee. This will support a new generation of application sales contracts which are based upon detailed usage conditions that are independently monitored and verified by AngelBase itself. Furthermore, when multiple tiers are involved, AngelBase will accurately and automatically sort out what portions of the usage by the second-tier customers are attributable to the original parent data village from the original vendor, and what portions are attributable to the value-added changes/additions made to the original data village by the first-tier customer (i.e. what credit does the first-tier customer get for its creative work that resulted in the child data village).
Product 5 Further Explained: AngelBase Economic Transaction Services
Collection of license fees by vendors at any tier from their customers can conveniently be made via our server, and this comprises the second of the three categories of economic transactions handled by us (for which we will collect a modest service charge, as stated in Revolutionary Achievement 6).
These innovative concepts support a complex new multi-level model for proliferation of highly customized database applications. A host of new technological, marketing, financial and legal possibilities are anticipated to emerge as a result, including the AngelBase Marketing Network, which is discussed on our Marketing page (Strategic Question 5, Marketing Concept 4).
In Delivery Scenarios 2, 3 and 4, vendors can configure their data villages to make micro-economic charges for the use of data, charging customers tiny fractions of a cent per unit of data served. Also, in Delivery Scenario 4, vendors can configure their data villages to make specific charges for the elements of linkage of the customer's data village to the vendor's data village.
Customers can conveniently be charged via our servers, and this comprises the third of the three categories of economic transactions handled by our servers (for which we will collect a modest service charge, as stated above in Revolutionary Achievement 6).
Revolutionary Achievement 9:
Information Resonance
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Primary impact: |
AngelBase will give rise to a new phenomenon called "Information Resonance" which will bring a quantum leap in user empowerment and effectiveness. |
As AngelBase users learn to manage both their data and the way their application works, a new phenomenon called "Information Resonance" will occur.
As this happens on a significant scale within an organization, it will cause a quantum leap in the organization's effectiveness in responding to changes in the market, serving customers and innovating new ways of operating.
People will stop using the computer like a horse and buggy, and start driving it like a car.
We Will Explain Information Resonance with a Dialogue.
What is information resonance?
First we should explain resonance.
The best way to understand resonance is to think about a playground swing. When a child swings there is a cycle of input and output:
The input is effort to make the swing go.
The output is fun in the form of a ride.
When a little kid tries to ride a swing for the first time, there is a lot of struggle. Much energy is wasted, struggling to make the swing go, but the ride is bad. This usually brings a cry for someone to push!
What do you think is happening in each cycle of input and output?
Sounds like a lot of effort but very little fun.
Yes. The effort being input is mostly wasted, and the output is mostly frustration!
The reason this happens is that the child has not learned to resonate with the swing.
Oh I see. When the kid learns to "pump" the swing, things suddenly get a whole lot better.
Yes. When the child learns to pump, then, with very little effort, he or she gets a terrific ride. With each cycle there is efficient input and valuable output. With each cycle, the child swings even higher. This is resonance.
Resonance is a delicate thing, and it can be tricky to achieve, but it is well worth the effort because of the dramatic improvement it offers. Resonance is a key concept in radio transmission, lasers, and the production of musical tones.
And information resonance?
In any information system where the inputs are extremely efficient, and the outputs are extremely valuable--perfectly meeting all the user's needs with minimum effort--information resonance is occurring. Information systems like this are rare. Large traditional information systems are never resonant.
AngelBase is expected to produce resonant information systems.
Why?
In existing information systems, users have no visibility into what is going on "behind the screen" so to speak. Everything is just data on the screen. The users don't really understand how the system works inside. They are faced with boundaries, restrictions, confusion and frustration, especially if they want to do something new or different.
This is like the child who doesn't understand how the swing works. The swing simply won't do what the child wants it to do.
In AngelBase, the users can see behind their data into the workings of the system. With this visibility, users will gradually learn how their information systems actually work inside. And with this knowledge will come the power to change their applications.
As the child begins to catch on to how the swing works, then he or she can make the swing go high and have great fun!
AngelBase will give the little guy the power to make an information system do what he or she wants it to do.
Can you give an example in a real information system?
Yes. Suppose that you work at a large travel agency. You are part of a team of 15 sales clerks who take telephone orders for airline tickets. You are working on an information system which is connected to all the airlines.
Suppose the information system provides you with 20 different "screens" to do your job. The different screens give you different ways of viewing and manipulating the data. For example, one screen might be for entering customer information. Another screen might be for checking flights. Etc.
Suppose a customer calls and wants to fly from Los Angeles to London. She wants to pay the lowest possible fare but is flexible on her travel dates. She can fly on any day from March 1st through March 31st. How are you going to help her?
Can't I just tell the computer to browse through all the flights from LA to London in March?
And it would help to have them sorted by fare, so you can find the cheapest at the top (or the bottom) of the list.
Yes, then I could give her what she is asking for.
But it seems to me that whenever I order airline tickets, the first thing they always ask me is what date I'm going to fly on.
You're right.
It turns out that all airline reservation systems force you to first enter a date of travel, before the system will give you any data about flights or prices.
But we just talked about having all the March flights sorted by fare. How am I going to help this lady if I have to ask her for a flight date first?
I'm afraid you are stuck. The existing airline reservation systems will not allow you to see a list of the March flights sorted by fare. All you can do is poke around, guessing a date here and another date there.
But if she is smart, she will figure out that I don't really know what flight is the cheapest. If I were in her shoes, I would be annoyed.
Look what's happening here. You need information that you know is in the system. But it is impossible to get that information on any of your screens.
Now let me ask you two questions at the same time.
First, do you think that you could create a new screen that would show this data with ease?
Second, suppose you had an idea to improve your job efficiency, but it required changing some things about how the information system worked. Do you think that you would be able to make the necessary changes in the information system?
Aren't those the things that programmers usually do?
Yes. Do you think a ticket sales clerk could do it?
I don't think so. Aren't they forced to work with the system just the way it is?
Yes. That is how it works with all existing database technologies, and consequently, that is how it works on all the tens of thousands of information systems running in organizations all over the world.
Are you telling me that with AngelBase, the ticket sales clerk could actually change the way the information system works?
Yes.
Wow. But what if someone made a change that screwed up the business or violated an airline policy?
It's all a matter of each person's individual authority. Executives can make any changes they want, including changes in company policies. A ticket sales clerk would be restricted from making policy-related changes. But there are millions of other things that he or she can do.
Could I create a screen that shows all the flights in March from LA to London, sorted by fare?
Yes. In fact, you could create a screen where you select any pair of cities, and you select any number of dates, and you would see all the flights, sorted by fare, or sorted any other way you wanted them sorted.
Won't this put the programmers out of work?
No. It will enable programmers to create more powerful systems which serve their companies better.
So, are you saying that both programmers and ordinary employees will be making changes to how the information system works?
Yes. In a very orderly manner. AngelBase makes this all possible.
Isn't that giving a great deal of power to the little guy?
That's what it's all about. The AngelBase paradigm involves empowering the little guy. That is healthy. When the little guy is empowered, then it unlocks his or her creativity and enhances his or her productivity.
The technological innovations in AngelBase are so incredible that it will become possible to do things on computers that have never been done before. We cannot possibly predict what these things will be. We believe the world contains thousands of potential geniuses, whose works of genius cannot presently be realized because of limitations in computer technology. AngelBase will unlock this, and a wide variety of profound and important contributions are anticipated to be made by hitherto unknown geniuses that will benefit humankind in almost every field.
Revolutionary Achievement 10:
AngelMachine Hardware
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Primary impact: Product 7 explained here. |
The First Computing Epoch of single-processor "von Neumann machines" began in 1945 and has continued through today. The AngelMachineTM, with its massively parallel processing, will usher in the Second Computing Epoch. Revolutionary new computer hardware will emerge. |
The modern computer was invented in 1945 by John von Neumann, a professor of mathematics at Princeton. He never patented the invention, but instead published it and made it available to the many projects in university and commercial laboratories where experimental computers were being built. His design, which came to be called the "von Neumann machine," was so compelling that almost immediately these many laboratories re-designed their machines to conform to von Neumann's architecture.
And so it has been for the last 60 years. Virtually all the computers ever built, right up until today, have been von Neumann machines, and no change is in sight. Most definitely, the computer on which you are viewing this Web site is a von Neumann machine.
Von Neumann machines utilize a single processor to excecute a sequential program. This defines the First Computing Epoch and is the basis of the computer hardware industry today.
Obviously, great gains in performance could be achieved if there were lots of processors operating in parallel, rather than just one. Von Neumann was well aware of this, but was unable to overcome the huge obstacles to making that possible. And the problem has defied resolution for the past 60 years.
There are extremely minor (and specialized) parallelisms in today's computers. One example is math co-processors (something von Neumann's original machine contained). Another example is "pipelining" which most processors today utilize to overlap the sequential steps a single processor must take. However, such minor parallelisms are not scalable to large numbers of processors.
While considerable research efforts have been made to attain true parallelism, we are not aware of any significant success at overcoming these obstacles to parallelism.
Product 7: AngelBase Hardware Technology Licenses.
AngelBase resolves the obstacles to putting lots of processors in a machine.
The AngelMachineTM will utilize a scalable multitude of processors operating in parallel to excecute a non-sequential program.
This will define the Second Computing Epoch, and it will be the basis of the computer hardware industry of the future. The AngelMachine is discussed further under on our technology page (Strategic Question 3, Revolutionary Technology Concept 9).
We do not intend to manufacture microchips or computer hardware ourselves. Instead, we will license the fundamental technology of the AngelMachine to microchip and computer manufacturers.
Revolutionary Achievement 11:
Two Power Shifts
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Primary impact: |
AngelBase is anticipated to introduce two significant power shifts into our modern civilization. One is a healthy decentralization, and the other is a benevolent centralization. |
The way that corporate applications operate today is a bit like the way a communist economy operates. Power is highly centralized. A few people decide how everything is going to be done, and then everyone else just obeys, even when their actions make no sense at all. In a free-enterprise economy, power is decentralized, and each person has the liberty to make his or her own decisions. The results are better on all levels. This is healthy.
Note: We are well aware of the vast impact of the "evil financial powers" on the free-enterprise system. They have undermined and largely destroyed it. The United States today operates, in a significant number of respects, like a Communist nation, and it is rapidly getting worse. The underlying problem is not the free-enterprise model, but the unconstitutional imposition of a financial tyranny onto that model.
AngelBase will decentralize power in the modern organization, and the result of this is anticipated to be analogous to switching from a communist economy to a free-enterprise economy. Very healthy.
It will be scary for many executives to give greater power to their employees. But it will be even scarier for these same executives to see what happens to them in the marketplace when their competitors embrace the new paradigm and reap the huge benefits of the full-empowerment of their employees. Executives must take care not to remain stuck in the buggy or livery business during the emergence of the automobile!
While the power to create and evolve applications will become decentralized as a consequence of AngelBase, the power to define and control the most essential tool of computing (AngelBase itself), plus the power to monitor the usage and licensure of applications (the AngelBase Master Registry), plus the power to operate micro-economic transactions that will define the new global economy, will all become highly centralized within The Legacy of the Angels.
This is an enormous new power--a power the world has never before seen. And it is of paramount importance to our civilization that The Legacy of the Angels act with the greatest benevolence and the utmost integrity in exercising this tremendous new power.
And we shall.
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