Science Fiction and Smart Mobs

Roland Piquepaille writes "Henry Jenkins is director of the Program in Comparative Media Studies at the MIT. In this article, he compares the new science fiction comic book from Warren Ellis, Global Frequency and the more serious book from Howard Rheingold, Smart Mobs. 'It is almost as though Ellis was illustrating arguments that Howard Rheingold makes in his new book, Smart Mobs.' As Rheingold explains, 'Smart mobs consist of people who are able to act in concert even if they don't know each other. The people who make up smart mobs cooperate in ways never before possible because they carry devices that possess both communication and computing capabilities.... Groups of people using these tools will gain new forms of social power.' Check this column for some excerpts or read the original article for more details. More information about topics discussed in Howard Rheingold's last book can be found at the Smart Mobs weblog." T. adds: Here's Curtis Frye's review of Smart Mobs .

Comments

Larry Niven Covered This Years Ago

[Dr. Wu]

He wrote several short stories that dealt with the effects of technology on mobs. Although in his universe, it was teleportation that created the problem, it's certainly relevent with today's technology (just look at the /. effect)

I know that they are included in several collections, the titles are...

- Flash Crowd

- The Last Days Of The Permanent Floating Riot Club

Actually, some of his best writing is that which deals with the psychology of new technologies, such as teleportation. So I would highly recommend that those interested check his work out.