The challenge is still one identified by both Canetti and Arendt: individual loneliness and atomization that creates blind obedience to crowds. For the crowd signals a rejection of reality in order to create an alternative reality: something that is doable provided a large number of people believe in it. This is something that technology itself can help with, with possibly frightening consequences. The future will be a contest of crowds: those imposing reality and those demanding a new reality.
