01_Wigley_pg85_ In describing the attendees of the cruise, many different disciplines were included outside of architecture (very different from CIAM); Was this interdisciplinary push a genesis for network connection, requiring more communication between individuals? Or was it the opposite, that interdisciplinary study only became possible because of developments in communications networks?

02_Wigley_pg86_ McLuhans view that technology has “shrunk the planet to the size of a village, creating a ‘tremendous opportunity’ for planners” brings up the works of contemporary economists and theorists Richard Florida and Thomas Friedman.

Friedman’s book The World is Flat, expands on McLuhans points and theorizes that communication technology removes geographic and other location-based conditions from the economy. Florida, on the other hand, responds with Whose your City?, and says that the world is still ‘spiky,’ with concentrated points of culture and economic power in cities, and that technology won’t smooth out these outliers.

Both theories have been the subject of much debate for the past decade. Many have created a hybrid model in the wake of both, saying that yes, technology acts as an equalizing force, but you still cannot ignore the unique advantages tied to a specific location. The Ted Talk Actually, the world isn’t Flat by Pankaj Ghemawat (link) demonstrates this idea and backs it up with data that says the world economy is still quite separated, and not as universally connected  as some would think.

While increased interconnectivity can be agreed upon as inevitable, to what extent is McLuhans original idea of a world-village feasible? Will technology enable a global network that connects all? Or, will society stop short of this network because of spiky nexus points that override the rest of the nodes?

03_Varnelis_fig.1_ The visualization of Centralized, Decentralized, and Distributed networks I think ties into the point above on flat/spiky environments. If we are currently in the decentralized configuration, is society trending more towards a centralized organization? or a distributed organization?

As a corollary, can multiple different networks exist and overlap simultaneously? Would a centralized authoritarian political power be successful in a distributed economy? Is a democracy viable in an economy that is centralized and controlled by vertically integrated companies?