But instead of collecting records of dead souls, the modern day Chichikovs may be driven to acquire more followers on Twitter or friends on Facebook or otherwise hoard social connections for money, fame, or reputation.

Our response has been to outsource citizenship, that is, participation in major decisions of our state, to specialists—a professional class of politicians aided by professional opinion makers and enabled by big-money interests—and allow them to make decisions for us.

Buckminster Fuller proposed the creation of a World Game for the purpose of “making the world work for 100 percent of humanity in the shortest possible time through spontaneous cooperation without ecological damage or disadvantage to anyone.”33

differentiate us, at least for now, from smart machines include: ■ Sensemaking: the ability to determine the deeper meaning or significance of what is being expressed ■ Social and emotional intelligence: the ability to connect to others in a deep and direct way, to sense and stimulate reactions and desired interactions ■ Novel and adaptive thinking

the nascent world in which amplified individuals empowered with technologies and connections with myriad others are able to come together to create, collaborate, and innovate outside of traditional institutional boundaries.

we are living simultaneously in two worlds, one in which almost everything is still done through formal institutions, whether corporations, large R&D labs, banks, universities, or governments, and another in which people are joining up to create something new outside of traditional boundaries, in the process displacing these decades-old

In their quest for more consumption, people have forgotten about the three virtues Smith observed that best provide for a tranquil lifestyle and overall social well-being: justice, beneficence and prudence. Applying the virtues to modern society may decrease overall consumption but will lead to a more satisfied life.”

producing more of the same, stimulating jaded appetites with new gadgets, thrills, and excitements? How much longer can this continue? Do we spend the next century wallowing in triviality?”17

an “essential polarity between the part and the whole, the one and the many. . . . Every age must find its balance between the two, and in every age the domination of either one will bring with it the call for its opposite.”16 For where, on the one hand, there is no way