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How the autonomous digital forces jolting our lives - as uncontrollable as the weather and plate tectonics - are transforming life, society, culture, and politics.David Auerbach's exploration of the phenomenon he has identified as the meganet begins with a simple, startling revelation: There is no hand on the tiller of some of the largest global digital forces that influence our daily lives: from corporate sites such as Facebook, Amazon, Google, YouTube, Instagram, and Reddit to the burgeoning metaverse encompassing cryptocurrencies and online gaming to government systems such as China's Social Credit System and India's Aadhaar.As we increasingly integrate our society, culture and politics within a hyper-networked fabric, Auerbach explains how the interactions of billions of people with unfathomably large online networks have produced a new sort of beast: ever-changing systems that operate beyond the control of the individuals, companies, and governments that created them.Meganets, Auerbach explains, have a life of their own, actively resisting attempts to control them as they accumulate data and produce spontaneous, unexpected social groups and uprisings that could not have even existed twenty years ago. And they constantly modify themselves in response to user behavior, resulting in collectively authored algorithms none of us intend or control. These enormous invisible organisms exerting great force on our lives are the new minds of the world, increasingly commandeering our daily lives and inner realities.Auerbach's analysis of these gargantuan opaque digital forces yield important insights such as:- The conventional wisdom that the Googles and Facebook of this world are tightly run algorithmic entities is a myth. No one is really in control.- The efforts at reform - to get lies and misinformation off meganets - run into a brick wall because the companies and executives who run them are trapped by the persistent, evolving, and opaque systems they have created.- Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies are uncontrollable and their embrace by elite financial institutions threatens the entire economy- We are asking the wrong questions in assuming that if only the Facebooks of this world could be better regulated or broken up that they would be better, more ethical citizens- Why questions such as making algorithms fair and bias-free and whether AI can be a tool for good or evil are wrong and misinformedAuerbach then comes full circle, showing that while we cannot ultimately control meganets we can tame them through the counterintuitive measures he describes in detail

Introduction -- "Many-coloured scenes of life" : the police courts in metropolitan culture and society, 1758-1860 -- "A ruffian rightly punished" : morality and local courtrooms in practice and portrayal, 1860-1880 -- "An evil quarter of an hour about the precincts" : urban reform and municipal authority in the courtroom, 1870-1902 -- "Two shillings' worth of revenge in the form of a summons" : the integration of courtrooms and communities in London, 1882-1902 -- A poor woman's court of justice, 1882-1910 -- "The very centre of observation and information" : constables, magistrates, and changing patterns of prosecution and punishment, 1880-1913 -- The historical and cultural legacies of the London magistrates courts.

Intro -- Contents -- Images -- Author's Note -- Acknowledgments -- Interview Report -- Preface -- Introduction: Where Petrol Is Cheaper than Water: Life in Capitalismo selvagem -- Chapter 1: The Smell of Success: Perfume, Beauty, Sweat, Oil -- Chapter 2: Touch and the Tactile: The Textures of Scouting in Capitalismo selvagem -- Chapter 3: Changing Tastes: Palates and the Possible -- Photo Essays -- Chapter 4: Music, Fofoca, and the News: Sound, Space, and Orientation -- Photo Essays -- Chapter 5: National Rebranding -- Photo Essays

'Imperial Boredom' offers a radical reconsideration of the British Empire during its heyday in the nineteenth century. Challenging the long-established view that that the Empire was about adventure and excitement, Auerbach draws on personal accounts to argue that boredom was central to the experience of Empire

Cover Page -- Title Page -- Dedication -- Contents -- Preface to Volume IV -- Foreword -- Introduction -- Contributors to Volume IV -- 1. School-Age Child Care -- 2. Training High School Students -- 3. Training Child Care Personnel -- 4. Play in the Child Care Center -- 5. Education for Parenthood -- 6. The Battered Child -- 7. The Disabled Child -- 8. The Black Child -- 9. The Chicano Child -- 10. The Filipino Child -- 11. The Chinese Child -- 12. Involving Parents -- 13. Child Care Switchboard -- 14. Issues in Delivery of Services -- 15. Child Care: Where Do We Go From Here?

Cover Page -- Title Page -- Dedication -- Contents -- General Preface -- Foreword -- Introduction -- Preface to Volume I -- Contributors to Volume I -- 1. The Magnitude of Day Care Need -- 2. Day Care: Issues, Trends, and Directions -- 3. Historical Precedents for Day Care -- 4. A Brief History of Child Development in California -- 5. The Day Care World of Children -- 6. Getting Organized for Child Development Services -- 7. Profiting from Day Care -- 8. How to Plan for a Comprehensive Day Care System -- 9. Getting Support for Children's Programs: Organizing Child Advocacy

Cover Page -- Title Page -- Dedication -- Contents -- Preface -- Chapter One Who Needs Child Care? -- Family Pressures Are Society's Challenge -- The State of the Nation -- Talk, Talk, Talk -- Chapter Two Don't Forget the Parents -- Working Women: A Growing Trend -- Are You Happy? -- Chapter Three Federal Foul-Up -- Getting the Gears to Mesh -- Research and More Research -- Chapter Four The State of the States -- Possibilities for Coordination -- The Problems Are Everywhere -- States Are Involved, Like It or Not -- Chapter Five Making it Work on the Local Level -- Integrating Care

Cover Page -- Title Page -- Dedication -- Contents -- Contributors to Volume II -- Foreword -- Preface -- 1. Hustling Resources for Day Care -- 2. A Community Organizes for Child Care: The Portland Experience -- 3. Organizing Services for Appalachia's Children -- 4. Organizing Child Care for Students-"Growing Together" -- 5. Mirror for Advocates: The Berkeley Experience -- 6. Organizing Counseling and Coordination: A Model for Child Care Services in Colorado -- 7. A Plan for the Health Care of Children -- 8. Health Consultation in Child Care -- 9. Planning Health Services in Child Care

Cover -- Half-Title -- Title -- Copyright -- Dedication -- Contents -- Acknowledgements -- Introduction -- Part I Socialism and Central Planning -- Introduction -- 1 Planning and Spontaneous Order -- Planning as an aspect of rationality -- Hayek and the constructivist fallacy -- Social outcomes without planning? -- Spontaneity and planning -- 2 The Giant Firm and the Plan -- The Great Transformation -- Modernity and the giant firm -- The giant firm: size and complexity -- The giant firm: the creation of management -- Planning and the giant firm