Steven Berlin Johnson is the author of The Ghost Map (2006), a chronicle of the 1854 cholera epidemic in London, and The Invention of Air (2008), the story of British scientist Joseph Priestly and his influence on the America's Founding Fathers. In this lecture Johnson will argue against those who maintain that the internet has fragmented society by enabling us to filter out voices with viewpoints different from our own. On the contrary, he claims that the internet promotes a diversity far more comprehensive than older forms of media.