A visionary innovator of virtual reality evaluates the negative impact of digital network technologies on the economy and particularly the middle class, citing challenges to employment and personal wealth while exploring the potential of a new information economy for stabilizing the middle class and enabling positive growth.

Reissued with new introduction and afterword.

Introduction to the Paperback edition -- Prelude -- Part one, First round. Motivation ; A simple idea -- Part two, The cybernetic tempest. Money as seen through one computer scientist's eyes ; The ad hoc construction of mass dignity ; "Siren servers" ; The specter of the perfect investment ; Some pioneering siren servers -- Part three, How this century might unfold from two points of view. From below: mass unemployment events ; From above: misusing big data to become ridiculous -- Part four, Markets, energy landscapes, and narcissism. Markets and energy landscapes ; Narcissism -- Part five, The contest to be most meta. Story lost ; Coercion on autopilot: specialized network effects ; Obscuring the human element ; Story found -- Part six, Democracy. Complaint is not enough ; Clout must underlie rights, if rights are to persist -- Part seven, Ted Nelson. First thought, best thought -- Part eight, The dirty pictures (or, Nuts and bolts: what a humanistic alternative might be like). The project ; We need to do better than ad hoc levees ; Some first principles ; Who will do what? ; Big business ; How will we earn and spend? ; Risk ; Financial identity ; Inclusion ; The interface to reality ; Creepy ; A stab at mitigating creepiness -- Part nine, Transition. The transition ; Leadership -- Conclusion: what is to be remembered? -- Afterword to the Paperback edition.