Progress in a Networked Age

We are all part of networks. Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Instagram. All bring people together to share news, opinions and life. But in all this excitement about social networks, are we missing something?  Why aren’t we using them to better decipher our collective national temperature and to better understand, appreciate and help each other? Rather than the “long tail” of technology pulling us apart as some claim, perhaps it really is the key to bringing us together. Perhaps only by using networks and crowdsourcing to bring us closer together, can we really see the gulf between us. Steven B. Johnson, author of WHERE GOOD IDEAS COME FROM, points to the power of these peer networks in his new book Future Perfect: The Case For Progress In A Networked Age. My conversation with Steven Johnson: