Globalization & the End of Work

This first class in a series focuses on concrete examples of how, in many ways, we are already living in a utopian future and stresses the importance of the trend toward a globalized "innovation economy."

Five levels of the soul as they correspond to five ages in human history leading up to and culminating with the Age of Moshiach.

The Zohar's prediction of the Industrial Revolution in the 19th Century CE as a precursor to the advent of Moshiach.

A description of the masculine and feminine intellectual faculties of chochmah and binah and their relationship to the "dematerialization" or "disembodiment" of how information is stored and transferred.

Leveling the economic playing field through a mentality of abundance rather than scarcity; how the vertical hierarchy has become manifest on a horizontal plane.

The "Economy of Choice" -- where consumers have a virtually endless variety of buying options -- is described as a manifestation of two levels of the Sefira of Keter, corresponding to Will and Pleasure.

The immediate availability of products for a "market of one" is viewed as an illustration of the universality and eternality of Torah information which is applicable to every person at every time and in every place.

The final lesson in this series summarizes human history as a progression through the ages of hunter/gatherer societies, agriculture, industrialization, information, and finally, the Messianic Age and compares them to the levels of the inanimate, vegetative, animal, human and G-dly Unity.