Networks Rising: Thinking Together in a Connected World

Review\n"A network to a world of connected people? We all need to know how we got there, why it exists, what the implications are for the current state of development, and where we are going. The voice that informs us must be cogent, rational, and deeply knowledgeable. At the end of a lifetime of strategic advisory work, Christopher Burns in Networks Rising fills that need with readable prose that all of us should be profoundly grateful for!" —David Worlock, chief research fellow, Outsell Inc.former chairman, European Information Industry Association+\n"Skip this book, unless you want an absolutely riveting look at the invisible deep networks Chris Burns says will encircle us, nudging us through our lives, beneath our level of awareness, and not entirely under our control." —Leland Schwartz, author and editor\nFor the second time in human history, we are on the verge of broad new breakthroughs in health, productivity, and personal freedom. And many-to-many networks are the reason. In business, government, and war, information is no longer the privilege of a powerful few. Now everyone knows what anyone knows, and we are applying that diversity of experience and perspective to expand the frontiers of our lives. We are starting to think together. The age of hierarchical organizations has ended. Social media networks, online forums, and guerilla broadcasting are connecting us in communities with fewer bureaucratic layers. In swarms, walkouts, strikes, and insurrections, people are sharing experience directly in real time, marching together into the public square, and demanding a greater voice in the new democracy. Networks Rising is the colorful story of unsung technology wizards waving us on, of philosophers struggling to free us from the dictates of church and state, and of sociologists, futurists, and even science fiction writers offering dozens of new schemes for living in a more connected world. At a time when so many of our institutions seem deeply challenged, we are actually poised at the beginning of what might be humanity's greatest leap forward in 25,000 years.