Emergence
A look at how society is developing and will do in the future, and could do to sort out the major societal issues we are facing. A running theme is the way that slime molds congregate and disperse in what seems like a random way but following a series of rules. Also we're introduced to how ants operate in a bottom up control way each knowing what they should be doing by following pheromones and other individualised indicators - and not taking instruction from the central queen. Linking to the way that our brains work this is an interesting read that goes into the way that the internet works and how that could be further developed to bring true localisation and bottom up government and decision making. Fascinating in the scientific parts and interesting in the connection to human behaviour but I'm not convinced that humans can act like ants. You don't see many of them hanging out playing guitar whilst the rest are working hard. But maybe that's a cheap comparison and I'm being cynical. I agree that what Johnson writes about society could be a future but I feel that the comparisons break down simply because we seem to be naturally hierarchical and those who are are running the show top down will defend their position against bottom up movements, however much they pay lip service to free enterprise and the bottom up market forces. To be fair this was written 15 years ago and I'm sure that an updated version would reference the challenges that bottom up movements have faced, and throw in a few more successes. Worth reading.
