READING RESPONSE

READING RESPONSE

READING RESPONSE

This communications revolution ? and the accelerating technological development behind it ? forms the necessary substructure for the emergence of so-called virtual communities. They consist of people who interact - often frequently and intensively ? though mostly on a temporary basis - in spite of not living in each other's neighborhood ? not meeting at work or at play ? sometimes even never seeing each other ? yet often being very much involved in the tasks in which they co-operate.

Virtual communities are typically the product of the post-modern era ? at least on their present massive scale. In the course of time ? communication has become increasingly symbolic ? and less “immediate”. This process has started already with the development of language: it is easier to misunderstand a sentence than to misunderstand a gesture ? words can hide as much as they explain. Nevertheless ? in a gradual and recently accelerating complexification process ? symbolic communication has become increasingly important over the centuries ? to such an extent in fact that considers society to consist not of people ? but of communications.

What can easily be demonstrated in computer simulations of neural networks goes for human networks as well: the more densely they are interconnected ? the less likely they are to cycle through a limited number of states ? or to ever repeat the same state. The more interdependence grows ? the less likely it becomes that history will ever repeat itself ? and can therefore be more or less predicted on the basis of previous experience.

The communications revolution has opened new vistas in this respect. At least in principle ? one can now start “surfing” on the Internet and engage in a worldwide search for the information one needs in order to further one's goals - in ...