everyone we knew also knew each other. Today, all our family, friends and acquaintances are separated, we communicate only infrequently, and rarely in person. We don't usually know our next-door neighbor. And few of our friends and acquaintances know one another.

We seek community. I had it when I worked, from my colleagues. Today, I am not close to anyone except my wife. My few remaining relatives live hundreds of miles away. The last time I recall knowing a great number of people who also knew one another was when I was a student. I miss that time, and I know why. I had a tribe.

This is not a healthy social environment for highly evolved primates. But we have the Zone...

We evolved over thousands of years in small bands, of at most a few dozen members, mostly family. We've been living in cities for only a small fraction of our species' time on this planet. And we have relied on electronic communication for only a few generations. Its only a matter of time before the inevitable neuroses start popping up.