Out of Control: The New Biology of Machines
by Kevin Kelly

A chronicle of the dawn of a new era in which the adaptability and autonomy of living organisms becomes the model for human-made systems and machines - everything from telecommunications to manufacturing processes, drug design and the global economy. Kevin Kelly considers the computer networks as a bionic hivelike supermind from which unexpected things will emerge. "Only playing out a hive will tell you if a colony is immixed in a bee." And, thus: "What is contained in a human that will not emerge until we are all interconnected by wires and politics?"

Kevin Kelly is executive editor of 'Wired' and formerly publisher and editor of 'Whole Earth Review'. He has been instrumental in helping launch a number of cultural innovations: 'The Hackers' Conference'; 'Cyberthon', the first virutual-reality jamboree; and 'The Well', model way-station on the information superhighway.