The main idea that I picked up from this lecture was the importance of audience in a network and a key defining point of what a network is. There was a big connection to ecology at the beginning of the talk; which makes sense because if you think about it an ecosystem is a network. All that grade 4 science is finally paying off!

I love that definition because I now have something that I know about and understand to juxtapose with something like the internet. It is interesting because now I see things from a different angle and I now have a deeper understanding about what it is I should be understanding in this course . . . I think.

This point is specifically about humans, and it is to do with the defining point I mentioned earlier. There is no important point in a network. This is made easier to understand in the example of our ecosystem, it is all a balancing act and if one thing is gone then it changes the whole system completely, even to the stage that it might collapse if we’re not too careful. This is contrary to many human beliefs though because, as humans we believe we are the centre of our own universe, which in fact we’re not. Therefor as humans it is hard to understand and therefor create something that is in fact a network because we are so wrapped up about the centre of things that generally we can’t comprehend the thought that there doesn’t have to be a centre. This is where the difficulty lies. . . I think.