Linked (2003) The First Link: Introduction, pp. 1-8

Summary
Barabasi insists that we live in complex interrelations made up of various factors, and through the networks we can have deep impacts on the world. Barabasi uses the examples of two persons in order to explain that. One of them is a fifteen-year-old boy called Mafiaboy, who hacked many computers through the Internet and attacked famous web sites such as Yahoo. Another one is Paul, who amazingly made Christianity begin to be the dominant religion in the Western world. Barabasi argues that both of them similarly use the power of social or computer networks, and as a result, they succeeded. Based on reductionism, science has developed while ignoring the importance of network, or interactions of things. However, he says, recent researchers are starting to look at the hidden power of networks so that they can see the world as a whole. The science of networks has just begun to develop. Barabasi strongly recommends us to study and know more about networks.

Reaction
Barabasi seemes to unconsciously assume that people in the whole world do not realize the importance of network, but his perception is nearsighted because such people are actually limited to modern Western people, and before the modernization of the world, relationism was not hidden, but very popular. The idea of engi (pratityasamutpada) in Buddhism is a good example. Engi means that everything is caused from, and causes everything, as the idea Barabasi presents in the text. Such a kind of thought, or relationism, was not given only by Buddhists. Taking look at the world history, one can easily find many examples of that. Therefore, it is reasonable to conclude that relationism is a very familiar idea for human-being, especially for premodern people. The significant problem is that reductionism actually has been dominant in the world from the beginning of modernization, and it still continues to spread. Obviously, Reductionism has strong power. It is not too much to say that without reductionism there cannot be great technologies in the world as we see now. Although Barabasi does not realize, it is important to ask why reductionism has beaten relationism, and how relationism can revive without abandoning the fruits of reductionism.