And if it's not framed properly, it will overleap itself, as Shakespeare would say. Brand's 30-year history of intellectual achievement includes launching the legendary Whole Earth Catalog and cofounding the influential Global Business Network. But right now, he's just eyeing his clock and palming his knife. He looks simultaneously terrified and thrilled. If the AIDS virus had been airborne, it would have been a runaway plague.
Engineers say that a tenfold quantitative change is a qualitative change.
Well, through Moore's Law alone, we're getting three of those revolutions every decade now. That rate of change is tremendously exciting and rewarding, especially to the young, but if we don't take the long view, the fallout could be pretty intense. Ever an optimist, Brand isn't troubled with Woody Allen-esque anxiety about the effects of relentless acceleration on the human psyche. To illustrate, Brand pulls out a diagram consisting of concentric circles. Spinning it around for me, Brand explains how the outer, ephemeral layers move very rapidly, while the inner, bedrock layers move very slowly but very powerfully.