Christopher Burns <meta name="description" content="Christopher Burns is an author and information technology consultant whose work involves an eploration of how new network technologies are changing the ways we live and communicate."> <meta name="keywords" content="Network technology, future networks, internet future, communities, Teilhard de Chardin, thinking together, Vietnam, New Old Age, Puzzles ">

For 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 now connect us together with fewer bureaucratic layers, letting us share experience directly in real time. In swarms, walkouts, strikes, and insurrections, people are marching into the public square and demanding a greater voice in the new democracy.

Networks Rising is the colorful story of how we got here, and where we’re going next. Unsung technology wizards wave us on, philosophers struggle to free us from the dictates of church and state, and sociologists, futurists, and even science fiction writers offer dozens of new schemes for living together 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. Pre-order now