Commerce

Humans need to transform the world to survive (unlike other animals that try to find ecosystems that support them), this transformation requires more than just physical resources.

The most powerful forces to transform the world are integrated wisdom and coordinated willpower.

Knowledge comes in two main categories:

1. Knowledge about the nature of the world (science) - understanding what exists and how it works
2. Knowledge about how to change the world (technology) - understanding how to transform both physical and social aspects of our environment

This knowledge exists in three distinct forms:

1. Embodied knowledge - Knowledge embedded in tools and materials (like a skillet), where you don't need to know how to make the tool to use it
2. Codified knowledge - Knowledge that exists in symbolic space as codes, recipes, formulas, algorithms, and manuals
3. Knowhow - Knowledge that exists in people's heads that can't be easily explained or transferred through conversation, requiring extensive practice, growth experiments.

Potential is realized through effectiveness of transformation of state, and driven by advancements in technology. Knowing where resources are located and how to use them is driven by knowledge.

What makes modern economies powerful is not that individuals have become smarter than historical figures like Adam Smith or Isaac Newton, but rather that we've developed systems for dividing knowledge among different people and then recombining it when needed. This "division of knowledge" allows societies to use much more knowledge than any single person could possess.