The Attention Economy and the Net (1997)

A surprising amount of phenomena in today's world can be explained around this theory. Every prediction in the "Further Expectations" section has in a way come to pass. As far as his prediction that money becomes "less important" it's possible that within a century VR will recreate a number of the experiences you would need material wealth to obtain today. A trend has already begun with younger generations giving preference to virtual experiences. It's still hard to tell if that's a world I'd want to live in.

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This article is good on the future, not so good on the past. The characterization of the transition from feudalism to a market economy as being led by North America seems highly suspect. It seems to me that the New World colonies that came from countries with thriving market economies (such as Britain) developed thriving market economies. The colonies from countries with more feudalistic economies (e.g. Spain) developed more feudalistic economies.