Real people's stories are an excellent way to introduce new ideas—they are engaging reading, and often convey the subtleties better and more concisely than any amount of explanation would. We here collect the stories that best illuminate and enliven the idea of Hermes.

I (DK) use the expression "Small World" to point to the world inhabited by people who are still largely unknown to their contemporaries, but are likely to be recognized as true heroes once the prevailing paradigms change. Like Mozart in his grownup age. The three histories presented here are chosen from that world. They introduce brilliant and inspired people working for change, bringing transformative ideas, already living in the forthcoming paradigm: 

• Erich Jantsch, who anticipated or wished for Hermes in late 1960s, from the point of view of the systems science and the world problematique
• Doug Engelbart, who began a grandparent of Hermes already a half-century ago, from its knowledge media side 
• Sergei Tchakhotine, who worked on avoiding a global disaster in the 1930s, from the communication design side
• Bucky Fuller, who saw the switch from competitive to collaborative world as the key, and undertook to develop the World Game as a way to do it, and to propose it to the American Senate

As you can see, our three heros represent the three communities of interest that are brought together by Hermes, and compose its core.