Reply to a Doctoral Student on Trends

Another way to restate your comment follows: networking is the model of business, government, education, etc. today. The old centralized, factory model of doing business is collapsing around us. What is replacing it is the Internet-based networking model of how to organize and manage today. I think this transition is exciting!

The current economic terrorism by the Wall Street Banksters has exposed the stupidity today of concentrating ever-more power and resources into central clearing-houses called Washington, Wall Street, the UN, etc. When systems are so massive, centralized, resource-greedy, any dysfunction becomes a calamity for the entire society, economy, government, etc.

Instead, we need to debundle, decentralize along networking lines to make sure that if a dysfunction occurs in one part of the network it damages only that part of it. This is the original logic of the Internet, which flows from the military need to bypass communication breakdowns in the wake of an atomic attack.

We are witnessing the breakdown of huge corporations - and related corporate entities of similar scale in education, government - right now. Because of their massive scale, they drag down everything around them for miles. We shall find in the aftermath of the system breakdown around us a renaissance of decentralized resource centers that confederate, collaborate, partner, team, etc. as they need.

Think of the ancient Greek city states. Think of the Roman Empire. We are seeing the collapse of Empire around us and its centralized dysfunction. Look for the emergence of "city states" that can combine and recombine at flexible high speeds as the model for the future. Your research ideas are on trend.