For the second time in human history, we are on the verge of a great leap forward in health, productivity, and personal freedom. And networks are the reason. Social media networks, online forums, and guerilla broadcasting are gaining influence throughout the world. In business, government, and war, information is no longer the preserve of a few at the top. Networks are connecting us in communities with fewer organizational layers and now everyone knows what anyone knows. In movements, swarms, walkouts, strikes, and insurrections, people are marching into the public square, sharing experience directly in real time and demanding a greater voice in the decisions that affect their lives. People are starting to think together. This shift to a flatter, more informed world has been a long time coming, and it is a colorful story of technology wizards waving us on, of philosophers struggling for centuries against entrenched aristocracies, and of science fiction writers, futurists, and sociologists offering dozens of new schemes for living more freely together.

Christopher Burns has spent over 35 years in the field of new information technologies, actively involved in the rise of the internet and the birth of online information services. As a well-regarded information systems expert, who holds two patents on online information technology, he is a regular speaker at conferences around the world. He now lives in Brunswick, Maine, a quiet college town five miles from the ocean.

Chapter 1: Discovering Fire Pierre Teilhard de Chardin • A New Species • A Bold Vision Chapter 2: Talking with Machines Grace Hopper • Douglas Engelbart • The Augmentation Project • The Unfinished Revolution Chapter 3: The Deep Network The Network Comes to Life • Social Technology • Surveillance Chapter 4: Freedom and Social Order Immanuel Kant • Voltaire and Rousseau • The Social Contract • Interment Chapter 5: Souls of Gold Émile Durkheim • A Conscious Collective • A Sacrifice is Called For • H. G. Wells • War of the Worlds. Chapter 6: Breaking Free Friedrich Nietzsche • Jean-Paul Sartre Chapter 7: Thinking Together Eleanor Roosevelt • A Bright Beginning • Groups Make Better Decisions • A New Balance. Chapter 8: A Flatter World The Fall of the UN • The Rise of NGOs Chapter 9: Science Dreams Theodore Sturgeon • Isaac Asimov • Gene Roddenberry • George Lucas • Arthur C. Clarke • William Gibson • A Future World Chapter 10: The Age of Aquarius Marilyn Ferguson • High Above the Center Ring Chapter 11: Truth is Local Jimmy Wales • Three Big Ideas • Rules for a Flatter World. • The Bigger Picture Chapter 12: Big Brother Thought Control • Eric Blair • Big Brother Lies • The Spectacle • 2084 Chapter 13. Smoke and Mirrors Fake Friends • Communications of the First and Second Kind • The Loneliness Machine • Faking It. Chapter 14. the Three Stooges Model Thinking Together • The Public Sphere • Network Truth • Virtual Truth Chapter 15. Insurrection The Social Contract has Expired • Wael Ghonim • The Children’s Crusade • “Frankly we did win this election” Chapter 16. The Network Rising We Are Connected • The World’s First Selfie • A Second Transformation