Institutional Acceleration

This Element develops a theory of institutional acceleration to explain the transformation to a digital economy through a cluster of frontier technologies: artificial intelligence blockchain quantum computing cryptography and low-earth orbit infrastructure. Unlike previous technological revolutions these technologies transform not how we organise things but how we coordinate economic activity. The authors' supertransition thesis explains why these digital technologies shouldn't be understood in isolation but rather should be understood in how they combine to create new institutional possibilities leading to more open complex and global economic systems. Drawing on evolutionary economics and institutional theory this Element shows how this evolutionary process is reshaping our institutional economic architecture. Ultimately institutional acceleration drives greater computation and knowledge into our economic systems.