How to Read This Book

Welcome. Thank you for taking the time to read this book.  

The purpose of this book is to illustrate the "big picture" trends going on in our world, particularly the Western world. The primary trend I am focusing on is the collapse of currencies and the nation-state as the primary governance system of the world. It is the contention of this book that Internet platforms and communities are here to replace the nation-state system, and that the virtual/game currencies serve as the means by which Internet platforms are monetized and a new global economic system is created. Furthermore, this book argues that these Internet/game currencies will prove to be more efficient -- so much more efficient that they will help to basically create a global renaissance. A new world order.  

This book is divided into various sections. The book is sequenced in a way that I thought would make the most sense, although it is also conducive to "jumping around" and reading in a non-linear fashion. 

The eight major sections:

1. Culture 2.0. This section is meant to offer a brief summary characterizing the collapse of the nation-state and its economies.  

2. 9/11 and Web 2.0. 9/11 is the most critical cultural event of our time; it marked the beginning of the demise of the nation-state as a model of governance. This series attempts to understand the nature of the networked society by examining the 9/11 Truth Movement.  

3. Platforms: The Game Plan for Web 2.0. This series serves as an introduction to the concept that Internet platforms represent a business model opportunity of the web, replace the nation-state as a model of governance.  

4. The Inversion of the Universe. This report looks at some of key business trends that are characteristic of platforms and Internet communities, and how they are vastly different than conventional product-oriented businesses.  

5. Monetary Economics. A collection of posts to help understand monetary economics.  

6. Virtual Currencies. After understanding monetary economics, we can understand how virtual currencies can be used to solve the problem of inappropriate monetary policy implemented by central banks and the nation-states they represent. 

7. Beyond the Nation State. This section covers a bit of all the previous sections, uniting the various concepts presented to help paint a clearer picture of how platforms can operate to disrupt the nation-state. 

8. 2012. This section looks at the subject matter presented in this book through a spiritual lens. Spirituality is an inherent part of this book, as it is the cornerstone to my worldview; I understand this is subjective and hence likely to be a source of disagreement. I simply present this section as it is vital to the formation of my vision, and so I felt it would be useful in helping individuals understand my vision and determine for themselves whether the vision has merit. Also, individuals who find the political, economic, and technological subjects presented elsewhere in this book to be cumbersome may find this section to be easier to understand.  

The book is a collection of blog posts and comments I've made around the web over a four year period -- from 2006 to 2010. The first four sections are meant to provide a structured introduction to the critical concepts in this book; the latter four are meant to provide short examples and various pieces of insight to help create a clearer picture.  

Throughout the book you'll see endnotes denoted by numbers within brackets. Like so: [1] or [15]. These endnotes correspond to URLs that relate the point being discussed. The full list of end notes is provided at the end of the manuscript.

Readers are encouraged to discuss these concepts with me on my blog, www.kidmercuryblog.com.  

Lastly, while this book is meant to appeal to the mind, all great change requires more than just the mind -- it requires spirit and passion as well. In the case of this work, the spirit of liberty will be needed to truly create the post nation-state renaissance that awaits us. To help create this spirit, I've created a rock opera, Revolution From My Bed. Revolution From My Bed can be purchased via many major online music retailers (i.e. iTunes, Napster, eMusic, Amazon, etc); a social game that corresponds to the album can also be found at my site, kidmercuryblog.com. In many ways Revolution From My Bed can be thought of as musical companion to the ideas presented in this book.   

Thank you once again for taking the time to read some or all of this book. I hope it can help you find the truth that sets you free.