ABSTRACT
Human physical survival is based on the availability of material resources, the energy with which we convert these into objects of common utility, and the knowledge which informs and advances this process. The growth of information regarding the possibility of large scale deterioration of environmental resources has focused more attention on higher standards of efficiency in resource use and on the completion of the natural cycles by better patterns of recycling and re-use. The central significance of the emergence of information and knowledge as the basic resource is that this has profound consequences which affect the structure of society itself and the institutional and value premises upon which it operates. A Pre-industrial Society is essentially based upon raw materials, as a game against nature in which there is diminishing returns. An Industrial Society is organized primarily around energy and the use of energy for the productivity of goods.
