How knowledge becomes a factor of production

Currently, in the process of transition of civilization in its development to the next technological order and a New industrial society of the second generation (NIS.2), the role of knowledge is growing in production; they are gradually becoming its prevailing and main factor. At the same time, knowledge cannot play the role of an independent factor of production. For their implementation in technologies and the manufactured product, the labor activity of a person with knowledge is necessary. In modern production, which is characterized by high knowledge intensity and continuous flow of innovations, such a person with the creative potential to apply knowledge becomes a key factor in production. The increasing role of knowledge and qualifications of production participants is interpreted in the mainstream of economic theory as the formation of human capital, investments in which provide returns in the form of increased income. However, there are serious reasons to doubt the scientific correctness of this approach. The return on creative work in the modern economy rather takes the form of intellectual rent. This rent is distributed between the employee and the hiring company on unequal grounds, determined by the specifics of the relations of wage labor and capital. Capital, to the extent that it is interested in retaining creative workers, can share with them a part of the intellectual rent received. But persons of creative work have not only economic interests, but also interests of a different nature – in self-realization, professional growth, social recognition, which also begins to be taken into account when stimulating their work. Ultimately, the modern evolution of creative work leads to development in the direction determined by the theory of noonomy.