Let's assume for a moment that it might be. World GDP has been growing strongly of late--above trend, and in the face of challenges that formerly may have caused it to falter. But it has not grown at anything that would resemble a doubling every 5 years--in 2000, according to the World GDP was 32 trillion US dollars, and in 2005 it was 44.4 trillion. Great growth--not doubling.
You could point out the obvious--that knowledge is not spread evenly throughout the world. But the part of the world where knowledge might be presumed to be greatest grew at a slower rate than the part of the world where it might be presumed to be lesser. No doubt much of that growth is due to increased human knowledge. But more than a little was due to more workers.
Hmm. This would not be the first time that we see indications that the more dramatic effects of knowledge occur when existing knowledge is made available to new people. Making 30-year-old call centre technology available to India, disassembling factories in England and reconstructing them in China and Indonesia, this is knowledge transfer, not creation. And, to repeat my refrain, this is great, good and wonderful--if you don't have an agenda that demands exponential growth in new knowledge.
The search continues.
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