We are at a great moment in history, a true renaissance in human progress. The internet is providing humanity with an unprecedented leap forward in the ability to create and disseminate all kinds of information. The way ahead is exciting and fraught with dangers and important decisions that have consequences for the whole direction of human culture into the future. Because of this it is important to look at the development of this technology and to think carefully about the consequences of what we are doing.

John Locke (1632-1704) was a pivotal British philosopher who lived in a time of tumultuous change. Not only was he exiled from England twice, but he was probably responsible more than anyone else for giving voice to the ideas that led the civilized world away from monarchic systems with kings and queens and rites of succession to democracy. He was a contemporary of Gottfried Leibniz and was a friend of Isaac Newton. Locke’s political philosophy was hugely influential with the drafters of the constitution of the United States and with every other democratic government in the civilized world. His ideas about the shape of human society in the absence of organized government are almost eerily prescient of the current state of the web.