Nature organizes all life in networks. These networks are constructed in such a way that, although they permit power and matter to flow through them, they still retain their form. Often they are constructed in accordance with the simplest of rules, and yet they produce the highest levels of complexity. Frequently arranged according to cyclical principles, they still react dynamically to environmental changes.

Humans, too, organize their lives in networks – as evidenced by the networks of the Internet and telecommunication, mobility, power supply, science, and, above all, the global economy. Being part of these networks is a factor that increasingly determines our day-to-day lives; the fate of the contemporary individual is inseparably connected with the entire population of the earth, with the »shrinking« planet. The composition of our networks, however, is much less elegant. They are often rigid, incapable of learning, hostile to innovation. In networks of that kind, branches and strands often prove to be dead-ends. They continue to function merely because we keep them artificially alive, at great expenditure of energy. What we need in regard to the weaving of networks is a new guiding principle – we should look to nature for inspiration. The discipline of bionics (biology and technics) must be supplemented by a new discipline: by the bionics of networks.

Another reason why this is so important is that, in the process of installing closely meshed networks around the »blue planet«, humankind is at the same time creating a new sphere of life. The next stage of evolution is unfolding in the sphere of information and technology – the »networld«. And an integral component of this new world will be the fact that humans, unlike all other beings, in part assume responsibility for their own further development.

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Chapter One:
The Network in the Desert

Chapter Two:
Network Commandments

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To get a first impression of the book you can downloadf the following chapters as PDFs:

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