Mindjack - Books - Smart Mobs reviewed by Cory Doctorow

Smart Mobs are packet-switched. Howard's book teases this out admirably. Packet-switched means that you're not reliable, you're not in control, you're not deterministic. Victorians of a certain bent adopted a fatalistic view of the universe as an utterly predictable billiard-table whose balls were set in motion by the Supreme First Mover. Smart Mobs live in an evolutionary hothouse that has more in common with the randomwalking properties of colony animals than with the military discipline of yestercenturies revolutions, cartels and governments.