That groan you just heard? Technologistas across the globe just collectively orgasmed. First the iPod, now the iPhone – Apple is proving once again that style and substance can go hand in hand like childhood sweethearts. Is it a phone, an MP3 player, a mobile office? Does it even matter? The thing looks fucking cool…

Welcome to the realm of the image: a land where the visual reigns supreme, where clothes make the man, where photoshopping is an accepted practice and where our eyeballs are bombarded with brilliant kaleidoscopes, fast cutaways and product placements. See me, buy me, be me.

Everything is presented visually – take a look at this “personal discovery tool.” Graphically presented for ease of use, the website encourages users to seek out new bands and films similar to their favourite artistes and auteurs. And while I may disagree with the dubious decision of delineating Pink Floyd as “similar” to Neil Young, what’s fascinating is the ability to represent a concept that some are subconsciously aware of: the network. It shouldn’t be a surprise anyone that networks are important to life. Career choices, wireless providers, CNN – all networks, all the time.

Life everything else that exists, networks are subject to change and evolution. Take the natural network that we were each bestowed with at birth – new synapses are created when reading the latest issue of the New Yorker and neurons are destroyed by the latest designer cocktail of drugs and alcohol. We construct social networks to mark our place in the world – “It’s not who you are, it’s who you know / Others’ lives are the basis of your own” – making and breaking friendships when needed.

And the most important network? It’s the one that you’re using right now, allowing these words to be displayed on a computer screen miles and miles away, across this ever-shrinking world. Communication and transmission is the name of the game, especially in a place where rumours and hearsay run rampant, wilder than a stampede in the wild, wild west. Remember the “creator of the Internet“?

Six years later, Gore’s back in the limelight, this time proselytizing a message of doom. Don’t worry, I’m not about to shoot down the concept of global warming, or cynically comment that the environmental movement is being infected with Geldof-itis. But consider this: if you were stirred by An Inconvenient Truth to do your part, are you aware of the true costs of effective carbon emissions reduction?

There may be tough times ahead, but it’s true we need to “work collectively and aggressively for bold new policies,” to share resources and strengths to overcome flaws and weaknesses. Like the latest gadgets from Jobs et al, the more people who have it, the more people will want it. As progressive thought becomes more en vogue, progressive policies will follow. A new way of life may be possible if we recognize that the world is a living network, and as individual nodes, its our duty to call for action, and the time is now.

Proletarier aller Länder, vereinigt euch, anyone?