Octet: The Eight Big Ideas You Need to Understand in the 21st Century (Hardback)

The future is here - and we don't understand it. We find ourselves in a bewildering world: technology and the internet are forever changing the way we live and work, and the way our businesses and countries are run. The rules which governed our lives, our families, our work, our leisure, our society have been rewritten. But the changes we see are not caused by improved laptops, shiny widgets or new software. They are the result of just eight new ideas. 1. Zero distance - how the internet destroys the concept of distance. 2. Free information - how digital information changes the whole basis of our economy and culture. 3. Mass amateurisation - how everyone can publish their work. DIY capitalism such as car-boot sales. 4. Metcalfe's Law - more is much more - how large groups take on special properties when linked by the internet. 5. True names and robust identities - how everyone on the internet is whoever they claim to be, which can have often unpleasant consequences. 6. The art of spreading - how spreading small, highly infectious pieces of information is one of the key skills for the new century. 7. nPersonalisation of everything - how the mass-market is becoming a mass of markets, from cars to TV channels. 8. Ubiquitous computing - what happens as our buildings, the air, the sea, our bodies, are equipped with computing devices? Ben Hammersley's ground-breaking book combines an ability to explain difficult ideas with awe-inspiring knowledge of the new technologies.