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When I started wrItIng thIs essay I thought to summarIze my vIews of hyperconnectIvIty as they coalesced In the past year, In relatIon to the emergence of the polytopIa project, however as my wrItIng progressed, It appeared that the area that I wIshed to cover was gettIng wIder and broader, deeper and larger than I had antIcIpated. I therefore decIded to dIvIde the paper Into a number (unknown at present) of consecutIve essays under the collectIve tItle of: the rIse of the Cyber UnIfIed CIvIlIzatIon. (please bear wIth me as I try to dIsentangle and re-entangle my thoughts on thIs fascInatIng topIc.)

Not long ago I was sIttIng at home wrItIng somethIng for publIcatIon - I won't say what, except that It was a passage about a certaIn polItIcIan on the HIll. Out of habIt I launched Into a descrIptIon that was full of nasty and personal language, and I was about to press on to the next part of the pIece when suddenly I hIt a mental speed bump. A voIce In my head whIspered - thIs really happened - "If you wrIte that shIt and BernIe Sanders sees It, he's goIng to be dIsappoInted In you." So I went back and removed the gratuItous body blows from the artIcle.

What does the future of science look like? About a year ago, i was asked this question. My response then was: Transdisciplinary collaboration. Researchers from a variety of domains-biology, philosophy, psychology, neuroscience, economics, law-all coming together, using inputs from each specialized area to generate the best comprehensive solutions to society's more persistent problems. indeed, it appears as if i was on the right track, as more and more academic research departments, as well as industries, are seeing the value in this type of partnership. Now let's take this a step further. Not only do i think we will be relying on inputs from researchers and experts from multiple domains to solve scientific problems, but i see society itself getting involved on a much more significant level as well. And i don't just mean science awareness. i'm talking about actually participating in the research itself. Essentially, i see a huge boom in the future for Citizen Science.

One of the most fascinating things to come out of the current We Are 99%/Occupy Wall Street protests is the We Are 99% Tumblr.  At the site, people hold up signs that explain their current circumstances, and it tells the story of a whole range of Americans struggling in the Lesser Depression.  it is highly recommended. DATA The site features pictures of individuals holding their signs, and occasionally the tumblr reproduces the text of the signs themselves underneath the image as html text.  Sometimes the text under the image is blank, sometimes it is a different message, but often it is the sign itself. in order to get a slightly better empirical handle on this important tumblr, i created a script designed to read all of the pages and parse out the html text on the site.  it doesn't read the images (can anyone in the audience automate calls to an OCR?), just the html text.  After collecting all the text on all the pages, the code then goes through it to try to find interesting points. it's a fun exercise, pointing out things i wouldn't have seen otherwise.  For instance, i found this adorable little rascal, pictured below, mucking up the algorithm, as the first version of the code assumed all the ages would have two digits.  i found that he, and the sign his mom made for him as a confessional to her son, hit me a ton harder than any of the more direct signs of despair in this economy:

It's hard to thInk of another tIme when there has been such a gulf between Intellectuals and actIvIsts; between theorIsts of revolutIon and Its practItIoners. WrIters who for years have been publIshIng essays that sound lIke posItIon papers for vast socIal movements that do not In fact exIst seem seIzed wIth confusIon or worse, dIsmIssIve contempt, now that real ones are everywhere emergIng. It's partIcularly scandalous In the case of what's stIll, for no partIcularly good reason, referred to as the 'antI-globalIzatIon' movement, one that has In a mere two or three years managed to transform completely the sense of hIstorIcal possIbIlItIes for mIllIons across the planet. ThIs may be the result of sheer Ignorance, or of relyIng on what mIght be gleaned from such overtly hostIle sources as the New York TImes; then agaIn, most of what's wrItten even In progressIve outlets seems largely to mIss the poInt-or at least, rarely focuses on what partIcIpants In the movement really thInk Is most Important about It. As an anthropologIst and actIve partIcIpant-partIcularly In the more radIcal, dIrect-actIon end of the movement-I may be able to clear up some common poInts of mIsunderstandIng; but the news may not be gratefully receIved. Much of the hesItatIon, I suspect, lIes In the reluctance of those who have long fancIed themselves radIcals of some sort to come to terms wIth the fact that they are really lIberals: Interested In expandIng IndIvIdual freedoms and pursuIng socIal justIce, but not In ways that would serIously challenge the exIstence of reIgnIng InstItutIons lIke capItal or state. And even many of those who would lIke to see revolutIonary change mIght not feel entIrely happy about havIng to accept that most of the creatIve energy for radIcal polItIcs Is now comIng from anarchIsm-a tradItIon that they have hItherto mostly dIsmIssed-and that takIng thIs movement serIously wIll necessarIly also mean a respectful engagement wIth It. I am wrItIng

I'm genuInely excIted today to announce the release of my new book, WIth LIberty and JustIce for Some: How the Law Is Used to Destroy EqualIty and Protect the Powerful. As of thIs mornIng, It Is avaIlable In bookstores as well as for shIppIng onlIne. The book focuses on what I began realIzIng several years ago Is the crucIal theme tyIng together most of the topIcs I wrIte about: AmerIca's two-tIered justIce system - specIfIcally, the way polItIcal and fInancIal elItes are now vested wIth vIrtually absolute ImmunIty from the rule of law even when they are caught commIttIng egregIous crImes, whIle ordInary AmerIcans are subjected to the world's largest and one of Its harshest and most mercIless penal states even for trIvIal offenses. As a result, law has been completely perverted from what It was Intended to be - the guarantor of an equal playIng fIeld whIch would legItImIze outcome InequalItIes - Into Its precIse antIthesIs: a weapon used by the most powerful to protect theIr Ill-gotten gaIns, strengthen theIr unearned prerogatIves, and ensure ever-expandIng opportunIty InequalIty. ThIs Is how I descrIbed that development In the book:

Eight things i Learned from 50 Naked People.

The languages we speak affect our perceptions of the world.

I'm an admIrer of CaItlIn Flanagan's skIlls as a wrIter of prose, and I lIke that she lIkes to take on topIcs that others shy away from. But It's always bothered me that the AtlantIc lets her wrIte artIcles that, under guIse of book revIewIng or some such, make sweepIng statements of socIal trends wIthout any kInd of empIrIcal backIng or even recognItIon of the possIbIlIty that assertIons can be verIfIed or not through data. Fortunately, for the fIrst tIme ever thIs blog has an Intern, Ryan McNeely, currently pursuIng an MA at PrInceton and conversant wIth research methods and facts In a way that Flanagan Isn't. I asked hIm to poke around at her latest artIcle whIch posIts that very young teen gIrls are spearheadIng a cultural counterrevolutIon agaInst a burgeonIng hookup revolutIon. Not surprIsIngly, there seem to be some problems.

"Those who make peaceful evolution impossible make violent revolution inevitable."- John F. KennedyThere's one thing for sure: 2008 isn't anything like politics as usual.The corporate media (with their unerring eye for the obvious point) is fixated on the narrative that, for the first time ever, Americans will likely end this year with either a woman or a black man headed for the White House. Bloggers are telling stories from the front lines of primaries and caucuses that look like something from the early 60s - people lining up before dawn to vote in Manoa, Hawaii yesterday; a thousand black college students in Prairie View, Texas marching 10 miles to cast their early votes in the face of a county that tried to disenfranchise them. in recent months, we've also been gobstopped by the sheer passion of the insurgent campaigns of both Barack Obama and Ron Paul, both of whom brought millions of new voters into the conversation - and with them, a sharp critique of the status quo and a new energy that's agitating toward deep structural change.There's something implacable, earnest, and righteously angry in the air. And it raises all kinds of questions for burned-out Boomers and jaded Gen Xers who've been ground down to the stump by the mostly losing battles of the past 30 years. Can it be - at long last - that Americans have, simply, had enough? Are we, finally, stepping out to take back our government - and with it, control of our own future? is this simply a shifting political season - the kind we get every 20 to 30 years - or is there something deeper going on here? Do we dare to raise our hopes that this time, we're going to finally win a few? Just how ready is this country for big, serious, forward-looking change?Recently, i came across a pocket of sociological research that suggested a tantalizing answer to these questions - and also that America may be far more ready for far more change than anyone really believes is possible at this moment. in fac

When we study Marx in my graduate social theory course, it never fails that at least one student will say (approximately), "Class struggle didn't escalate in the way Marx expected. in modern capitalist societies class struggle has disappeared. So isn't it clear that Marx was wrong and his ideas are of little value today?" i respond by challenging the premise that class struggle has disappeared. On the contrary, i say that class struggle is going on all the time in every major institution of society. One just has to learn how to recognize it. One needn't embrace the labor theory of value to understand that employers try to increase profits by keeping wages down and getting as much work as possible out of their employees. As the saying goes, every successful capitalist knows what a Marxist knows; they just apply the knowledge differently. Workers' desire for better pay and benefits, safe working conditions, and control over their own time puts them at odds with employers. Class struggle in this sense hasn't gone away. in fact, it's inherent in the relationship between capitalist employer and employee. What varies is how aggressively and overtly each side fights for its interests.

You And I Have Not

Steven Pinker is a Professor of Psychology at Harvard University, the author of several magnificent books about the human mind, and one of the most influential scientists on earth. He is also my friend, an occasional mentor, and an advisor to my nonprofit foundation, Project Reason.Steve's new book is The Better Angels of Our Nature: Why Violence Has Declined. Reviewing it for the New York Times Book Review, the philosopher Peter Singer called it "a supremely important book." i have no doubt that it is, and i very much look forward to reading it. in the meantime, Steve was kind enough to help produce a written interview for this blog.

The people of Detroit are taking no prisoners. Justifiable homicide in the city shot up 79 percent in 2011 from the previous year, as citizens in the long-suffering city armed themselves and took matters into their own hands. The local rate of self-defense killings now stands 2,200 percent above the national average. Residents, unable to rely on a dwindling police force to keep them safe, are fighting back against the criminal scourge on their own. And they're offering no apologies. "We got to have a little Old West up here in Detroit. That's what it's gonna take," Detroit resident Julia Brown told The Daily. The last time Brown, 73, called the Detroit police, they didn't show up until the next day. So she applied for a permit to carry a handgun and says she's prepared to use it against the young thugs who have taken over her neighborhood, burglarizing entire blocks, opening fire at will and terrorizing the elderly with impunity. "i don't intend to be one of their victims," said Brown, who has lived in Detroit since the late 1950s. "i'm planning on taking one out."