Héllo everybody, I stumbled on Culture and Empire a few days ago and I've been reading it since then. I'm not finished yet. It's insigthful, smart and provocative. It bridge past, present and future. I will put it in my armory *ahem* library between Fundation and The Cathedral and the Bazaar until I read Present Shock. This is the book you want, need and will read this year if any.
I quick glimpse into the very readable book: ---8<-----8<-----8<-----8<-----8<-----8<-----8<-----8<-----8< Chapter 1. Magic Machines Far away, in a different place, a civilization called Culture had taken seed, and was growing. It owned little except a magic spell called Knowledge. In this chapter, I’ll examine how the Internet is changing our society. It’s happening quickly. The most significant changes have occurred during just the last 10 years or so. More and more of our knowledge about the world and other people is transmitted and stored digitally. What we know and who we know are moving out of our minds and into databases. These changes scare many people, whereas in fact they contain the potential to free us, empowering us to improve society in ways that were never before possible. -----8<-----8<-----8<-----8<-----8<-----8<-----8<-----8<----- There is also a presentation of the content of the book that I didn't review yet. But it seems like you don't need to read all the book to understand what is in inside. There is also a related crowdfunding project, but I don't know more that since I want to finish the book first. http://cultureandempire.com/ Happy new year (indeed), Amirouche ~ http://hypermove.net/ -- https://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list