HOWARD RHEINGOLD fell into the computer realm from the typewriter dimension, then plugged his computer into his telephone and got sucked into the net. In earlier years, his interest in the powers of the human mind led to Higher Creativity, written with Willis Harman, Talking Tech and The Cognitive Connections with Howard Levine Excursions to the Far Side of the Mind: A Book of Memes ), Exploring the World of Lucid Dreaming , with Stephen LaBerge, and They Have A Word For It: A Lighthearted Lexicon of Untranslatable Words and phrases.

"I ventured further into the territory where minds meet technology, via the subject of computers as mind-amplifiers, and wrote Tools for Thought . Next, Virtual Reality chronicled my odyssey in the world of artificial experience, from simulated battlefields in Hawaii to robotics laboratories in Tokyo, garage inventors in Great Britain, and simulation engineers in the south of France.

"In 1985, I became involved in the WELL, a computer conferencing system. I started writing about life in my virtual community and ended up with a book about the cultural and political implications of a new communications medium, The Virtual Community. In 1993 I had the privilege of being the editor of The Whole Earth Review and editor in chief of The Millennium Whole Earth Catalog. In 1994, I was one of the principal architects and the first Executive Editor of HotWired. I quit after launch, because I wanted something more like a jam session than a magazine. In 1996, I founded and, with the help of a crew of 15, launched "Electric Minds". I've become a professional virtual community builder, as well. My new book is Smart Mobs: The Next Social Revolution.

"You can see my painted shoes, if you'd like."

Further reading on Edge:

"Howard Rheingold: Smart Mobs"

"The Citizen" in Digerati

Beyond Edge:

Howard Rheingold's Home Page