A representative of a major publishing house is on her way home from a conference in Singapore, excited about the possibility of a new book series. On the flight home to New York she opens her blackberry organizer, adding names of new contacts, and is disappointed to realize she may have caught the bug that was bothering her friend Alex at the cafè near the conference hotel. When she returns home she will send Alex an email to see how she's doing and to make sure this isn't a case of some new dangerous flu.

Of course, the publisher is aware that she is part of an interconnected network of other business men and women and their clients: Her value as an employee depends on these connections. She depends on the transportation network of taxis and airplanes to get her job done and is grateful for the most famous network today that allows her to contact her friend effortlessly even when separated by thousands of miles. Other networks of even greater importance escape her consciousness, even though consciousness itself depends on a highly interconnected fabric of neurons and vascular tissue. Communication networks are critical to support the air traffic controllers who manage the airspace around her. A supply chain of manufacturers makes her book business possible, as well as the existence of the airplane on which she is flying.