We are living in the future Chester County. Internet of Things,  robot chauffeurs, the hyperloop–all day we read about the newest “disruptive” technology that will positively transform the structure of our day to day lives. But as the old saying goes, the more things change the more they stay the same.

But what if the more things change, the more they revert? William H. Davidow and Michael S. Malone argue in the Harvard Business Review recent changes to commerce and information access may create a society that looks more familiar to us (or our ancestors) than we think:

To understand why, consider that the physical infrastructure of today’s society evolved in response to basic information transfer problems. In order to efficiently exchange the information necessary to buy and sell goods, produce things of value, learn, or be entertained, people had to gather in physical places. Thus, you can see our existing infrastructural assets, and the business processes supporting them, as information transfer proxies. Consumers go to retail stores to find out what is available at what prices—in other words, in large part, to get information. Workers go to office buildings to gain access to files and communicate with co-workers—again, for information access and transfer processes. Walmart stores and office buildings are essentially giant file cabinets where shoppers and workers go to get and exchange information.

Thanks to the Google, Amazon, and Netflix etc. consumption and work habits are increasingly less dependent on locations outside the home, and that doesn’t look so much like a new future as it does our agrarian past. That, as the authors argue, is going to have major implications for how we choose to organize society. Read more on the New Old Order here.