A few months ago, I kicked off a book project called Liquid City, with these words:
The web is the largest, most expensive, and most revolutionary human artifact every created. And the most explosive part of the web is the emergence of social networks, which provide unprecedented degree of human connection, and which are already in use by billions, perhaps half of the world already. This parallels the growing urbanization of the world: already 50% of humans live in cities, and the United States is leading all nations, with over 85% living in cities and surroundings.
These two complementary trends are setting the stage for a nearly unimaginable quantum shift in human social density, both online and off. We’ve learned in recent years, thanks to the work of researchers like Geoffrey West, about the superlinearity in performance and efficiency that comes from increasing the size of cities, and social network research has demonstrated how innovation can come from increasing social connections. As we move to a new wave of technologies — like ubiquitous connectivity, tablets and other smart devices, gestural interfaces, and social operating systems — what sort of increase in social density can we expect?
A third, independent trend is the explosion of cognitive science that is providing a scientific, reality-based understanding of how people are far more social that was ever guessed. In particular, research in social cognition shows that our thoughts are truly not our own, and that our perceptions, values, and behavior are deeply shaped by social connection.
And how will we surmount the challenges that confront us in today’s already webbed and urban world? Issues like personal privacy in an increasingly public world, the need for a new social contract in a freelance world of business, and the downsides of greater social connection.
I tried the Kickstarter route, but I think I got the pitch wrong or misjudged how much to ask for ($10,000). It wasn’t funded, but that hasn’t decreased my interest in the project, really, just moved it back to being a writing project and less of a community building exercise.
So, I will be writing the book a chapter at a time, starting in November, and adding a new chapter each month for ten months, with topics like these:
- The Rise Of Liquid Media
- The Social Revolution: It’s Not Democratic, It’s Neo-Tribal
- Social Cognition: Your Thoughts Are Not Your Own
- Social Density, Influence, And Social Scenes
- Privacy versus Publicy: Identity Politics and Social Contracts
- The Architecture of Cooperation and The Rōnin Economy
- Webbed And Urban: Supercharging Superlinearity?
November’s essay is based on the recent presentations I gave in Montreal and TEDxMidAtlantic, entitled An Architecture For Cooperation.
I will be selling the chapters for $1 each, and the entire book for $10. Sign up here to be notified of status updates.
