Superseding the Periodic Table of the Elements

As a society, we are facing changes that are hard to ignore. We are witnessing one of the greatest industrial transformations in human history, namely a moment that will define the nations, corporations, and the individuals who will lead the next century. Those who are in control of the access to advanced raw materials of the future will determine the economic, technological, and geopolitical landscape. On the other hand, those who cannot adapt will collapse into irrelevance.

Humanity has been extracting what it needs from the planet without thinking twice about the impact it’s having on the earth, whether that’s stone, iron, oil, or rare-earth metals. And yes, this has been happening for thousands of years! The industrial economy we live in today was built on fossil fuels and mined materials. But that foundation is breaking apart. Resources are finite. The global supply chains that feed our industries are fragile, and we’re learning our lessons more and more every day. China and Russia have weaponized raw materials to assert dominance, while Western economies scramble to find alternatives. Yet are they really to blame? After all, this is how most of the developed world came to be leaders. Now, however, the battle for the future is not about who has the biggest armies or the most powerful corporations, but rather about who owns, invents, and controls the next generation of materials. This chapter imagines breaking free from scarcity. It is about manufacturing like nature manufactures, creating materials that do not need to be extracted from deep underground or shipped across oceans.
It is about moving from linear extraction economies to full-cycle regenerative economies. The cycle begins with base raw materials that are grown, then “refined,” then manufactured like nature manufactures, through molecule by molecule self-assembly. This completes the raw material part of the cycle, which creates a stockpile for manufacturing an endless number of final products, all of which are endlessly reusable and can be placed back into the raw material development cycle. Different end products will require different types of stockpiled raw materials. Each of their unique specifications can be invented and grown backward through the raw material cycle. This is not science fiction. It is the next industrial revolution—the biotechnology industrial revolution.

Why Traditional Manufacturing Is Collapsing
For too long, the world has been obsessed with net-zero carbon policies that are destined to fail. The idea that we can just reduce carbon emissions and “sustain” the existing system is fundamentally flawed. Global energy demand is increasing. The world’s population is growing. Developing nations are industrializing faster than ever before. We will not conserve our way to survival, which means that we need to reinvent how we create raw materials altogether.

The New Biotechnology Industrial Revolution: Self-Assembling and Bio-Engineered Materials
The industrial economy of the future will not be built on mining—it will be built on growing. The era of toxic, linear production is coming to an end. The next wave of economic power will come from:

• Self-assembling biologics materials that can structure themselves at the molecular level.

• Bio-manufactured raw materials, created in full-cycle ecosystems instead of extracted from finite reserves.

• Advanced adhesives and smart polymers, engineered to be stronger, lighter, and biodegradable.

• Farms and forests that produce industrial feedstocks, not just food, and also replacing petroleum-based chemicals with plant-based alternatives.

Nature has been manufacturing with efficiency for billions of years. Every leaf, every cell, every ecosystem is a self-assembling, zero-waste production system. It is time that we manufacture like nature manufactures.
Yet the sustainability movement has been stuck in a flawed paradigm. The belief that we can simply reduce carbon emissions and “balance” carbon is wishful thinking at best and dangerous at worst.
Consider this: Forests, once considered carbon sinks, are now net emitters. The natural planetary photosynthesis cycles that took billions of years to develop are collapsing. That means the very models we have relied upon to offset carbon emissions are collapsing. Climate change will not be solved by incremental reduction—it will require radical reengineering of the entire material economy.
That is why building fjords in the great deserts is the only physically possible way to reverse climate change. If we want to restore the balance of the planet, we must redirect the natural water cycles to rehydrate the planet, creating new fertile lands, marshes, and forests where there was once desert wasteland. This is the only possible way to replace lost carbon sinks on a planetary scale.

Who Will Control the Future?
This book is a guide for those who will lead the next century. If you are reading this, you have a choice: Will you be a spectator in history, or will you shape it? The companies, governments, industries, and individuals that understand the future of advanced materials will be the ones who control the future of industry, economics, and power.
This book discusses the following changes we envision, and you can watch the future unfolding before your eyes:

• How the periodic table of elements must be expanded to include the self-assembled and grown materials of tomorrow.

• The transformation of deserts into economic powerhouses, unlocking new raw material resources.

• The end of traditional toxic manufacturing, replaced by bioengineered and self-assembling biologics materials.

• How global power is shifting, and what you can do to be part of the winning side.

The age of manufacturing like nature manufactures is upon us. Those who embrace this revolution will rise. Those who ignore it will fall.

Welcome to the future. The choice is yours.