Uncommon Sense (PDF)

"Peter Cochrane is one of our most far-sighted visionaries, and
brings brilliant clarity and focus to our understanding of
ourselves and our technologies, and of how profoundly each is
transforming the other." -Douglas Adams, Author, The Hitch Hiker's
Guide to the Galaxy



In Uncommon Sense, Peter Cochrane's follow up to the radical 108
Tips for Time Traveller, Peter explains how very simple analysis
allows the prediction of such debacles as the 3G auction and the
subsequent collapse of an industry, whilst simple-minded thinking
is dangerous in the context of a world that is predominantly
chaotic and out of control.

People balked when Peter suggested a wholesale move to eWorking,
the rise of email and text messaging, and the dotcom regime
mirroring the boom and bust cycle of the industrial revolution. His
predictions of the use and growth of mobile devices and
communication, or use of chip implants for humans to replace ID
cards, passports, and medical records, or iris scanners and
fingerprint readers - were all seen as unlikely. Today they are a
reality.

How then will the world react to his predictions as set out in
Uncommon Sense of a networked world of distributed ignorance and
sharing overcoming an old world of concentrated skill and control?
To everything becoming 'Napsterised' in every dimension, where
storage and processing power cost nothing, and become connected
without the help of the old network companies? A world where
individuals create their own networks, where laws of copyright and
resale, and old business models have to be changed as giant
industries are dragged kicking and screaming out of the 19th
Century and into the 21st?

Peter Cochrane poses and answers questions, suggests solutions,
and raises red flags on issues that need to be addressed. Tables,
diagrams, pictures and illustrations generously support all of the
text, with the most difficult aspects illustrated by simulations
and other material on a CD and links to a web site with an ongoing
expansion of the themes addressed.