Profit Motive Drives Dematerialization Via Computers

The computer let capitalism's relentless drive to cut costs find overlapping ways to get more prosperity from fewer material inputs: because customers value the product not the materials, firms use computer-aided design to slash inputs (e.g., aluminum cans now weigh about one-fifth of the original), and digital tracking (RFID on boxcars) cuts the physical capital needed—so the same greed that once drove extraction now drives material savings.