Army of Davids email string

Army of Davids Discussion
Follow this link, examine the graphic, scroll to discussion at the end.

No doubt there is plenty of reason to fear increased authoritarian control, but the Internet, blogosphere, etc. have created an opportunity, unprecedented in human history, for reason to assert itself. Crucially, there are increasingly effective means for distinguishing signal from noise, allowing accurate information to prevail over spin.

Here’s an article somewhat on point from Cal’s Alumni magazine: http://alumni.berkeley.edu/calmag/200603/search.asp.
Also http://alumni.berkeley.edu/calmag/200603/kapor.asp from the same issue.

See also this book, which I’m about ½-way through. It was published in 2002, which enables the reader to see how much of the material under discussion is coming true and achieving scale. All of this is occurring against the backdrop of the revolutionary advances in network science, emergence, complex systems, etc., which are invigorating scientific research across numerous fields. For background on that, see the Orgnet site, the attached Sci Am article (and the ‘further reading’ cites); this book, and this one, and dozens of other books,' articles, and scientific publications by lots of credible people.

The main reason I believe all this, however, is that it resonates with my own personal experience “wielding technology” and marshalling information effectively in the service of truth and reason, up against forces and mentalities very much akin to those behind the reigning political ideology.

These phenomena are still largely invisible to even very sophisticated people, so I feel compelled to do my part to increase awareness. I’m no Pollyanna, and I’m not predicting any straight-line path to utopia, but there are tangible grounds for hope.

By the way, this email (with hyperlinks to source material, clips from substantive sources, etc.) is an example of the new kind of communications that are now possible, and increasingly people are getting in the habit of communicating in this way (to the point that it is becoming necessary to be able to do so).