Just as language freed us to operate with unprecedented efficacy, the wireless-and-everywhere network brings us new powers, both as individuals and as a race.  We are unprepared for this transition, even though everything in human history has led us directly to this moment.  Everything seems chaotic and random.  The specifics will always elude prediction, but the general outline of events-to-come has already revealed itself:  We are connecting.  We are sharing.  We are learning.  We are doing.  In articulating the details of this outline, this book serves as a ‘field guide to the future’, providing the tools needed to make the most of the tumultuous, explosive and epochal next billion seconds.  Whether you run a business, teach or learn, heal or require care, move the levers of power or seek to, this book will speak directly to you.

The next billion seconds will see more change than the previous sixty thousand years.  We are the lucky few, witnessing the birth of that which follows language.  Our ability to speak created the world as we know it today.  This world is being remade as we utter new words, in a different, connected tongue.  The world around us is hardly changing at all, but the universe beneath our skin has acquired a connected depth we never expected, nor even dreamed of.  There is a space, within each of us, that encompasses all of us.  This new universe of the connected self contains within it all of our knowledge, all of our strengths – and all of our ignorance and weaknesses.  We are becoming more: not better, nor worse, but larger-than-life-as-we-have-known-it.

It’s going to be a thrilling ride.  As we move into our connected selves, the continuously improving connections between us accelerate our passage into the incredible, almost indescribable, future which awaits all of us.  It may seem distant, but we are already moving so quickly that great distances can be covered in no time at all.  Everything is changing, all at once.

Our research has shown us how the processes underway can be put to work for us.  We need not be passive bystanders, letting the future just happen.  We can get our hands dirty, and help shape that future.  This book shows you how.