Michael Lewis's book "Next".

Story of the early Internet days, for the main theme that the Web is not just a faster way of delivering information, but that a new social platform enabling everyone to market themselves beyond the traditional professionals, and allows mavericks to surprise the status quo.

Four parts:

1. 13 yr old kid who uses AOL and bulletin boards to hype up stocks in his Etrade account.
2. 15 yr old legal expert on AskMe.com
3. Gnutella
4. contemplating the future of society:

Edge thinking:  While the traditional status quo are happily in the center of things, Revolutionaries seek lower costs, and developed new technology and innovation at the edge, until the two worlds merge in agreement in a new social order, then the process  repeats.

Bill Joy generalizes Unabomber's idea of Machine vs Man:

• Machine (or next generation, or revolutionaries on the edge) have better way of doing things.
• Man (or grownups, or traditionalists) will depend on Machine more and more.
• Then only a small elite group will be able to harness and utilize this new power.
• In this new world, either the small elite group will abuse the mass, or become good guardians.

Only registered users can write comments.
Please login or register.

Powered by AkoComment 1.0 beta 2!