If you want to see the future, or at least catch a glimpse of where the human animal is headed, you will need to turn your gaze toward the edges of society. Don't look to those who rule, those who lead, those who are elected or anointed. Don't look to the centre of our modern empires, for all you will see is the conservation of power, the institutionalized denial of the second law of thermodynamics, the inertia that comes with bloated conspicuous consumption. If you want to see the future of culture and consciousness, look to the edges of human experience. Find the cracks where the boundaries of experience are extended.
Cultural change begins like a crack in the wall of our ordered and highly structured existence.
Sometimes the change is successful and survives long enough to generate a viable foundation for community. Sometimes a crack in our social existence grows into a force strong enough to drag all of reality through itself and on into an altogether different paradigm. Until as recently as last year, the Internet has remained invisible and beyond both the experience and scrutiny of the majority. Today, the Internet has permanently entrenched itself within the landscape of alternative culture, and has a steadily growing presence in the larger, more prevalent world of mundane reality. Bear with me as I explain why this is as certain as tomorrow.