For untold millenia of human history, power was defined by the ability to move goods, services, and people. Great monuments of power, such as the pyramids of Egypt, were structural in nature and accomplished by many thousands of able hands. The power of the body, in individual and collective form, was supreme.

Recent centuries saw the transition away from structural and material power toward knowledge as the key to greatness. Such inventions as organized agriculture, gunpowder, and literacy opened up totally new ways of solving problems. Greatness was enabled by a new group of people, scholars and scientists, who could spend their lives learning more about how the world works. Greatness was acknowledged by inventions that would have been impossible without understanding - electricity, the airplane, and even spaceflight. The power of the mind, in individual and collective form, was supreme.

Now we have come to a time of unparalleled knowledge, and also unparalleled access to knowledge. Just as the ability to move a heavy rock or tree is now unremarkable - anyone can acquire the equipment to do it - the ability to know the most detailed information is becoming unremarkable. One can Google for the structure of the human genome, the design of a nuclear weapon, or the location of any business or person.

On top of the flood of knowledge is a collection of "information behaviors" that seem, at times, confusing, trivial, and even dangerous to our social fabric. We know these information behaviors as texting, social networking, instant messaging, on-line gaming, Twitter, etc. At first we thought these things were tools to be used for an existing purpose, like marketing a business. We also thought maybe they were fads or hobbies, like the yo-yo.

Many of us can sense that something else is happening, however. Information behaviors define relationships, and although the tools and behaviors involved change frequently, there is something consistent across it all.

Welcome to the Identity Age. Information behaviors are now the substrate for identity-defining activities. The new form of power is the ability to form identity relationships with others, leverage the identity bond for a purpose, and then dissipate with little to no residue. People are developing the skill to create, enjoy, and destroy identities quickly enough that identity itself becomes a tool instead of an attribute.

Watch for it to verify it. Why would people bother to be a "Fan" of something on Facebook? Why would people loudly declare their sexual preferences, giving up their own privacy? Why would people choose to radically polarize politics, paralyzing the process? It is to assert identity, to bond with others and participate in a common momentum of change at a scope beyond structural power ("doing it") and knowledge ("knowing it"). Identity is the power of being it.

Our ninja lineage has much to say about identity fluidity. In fact, much of the reason the ninja were reviled in their time is because identity fluidity was so alien and disorienting in their time. That time is coming into the mainstream now, and the ninja has centuries of practice in how to do it.

It is also true that just as the weak were dominated in the age of material power, and the uneducated were dominated in the age of knowledge, those with rigid identities, or those unaware of their own identity-forming process, will be dominated by those who can change their connections and harmony at will.

Is it losing the self and dissolving society to develop such powers? It could be, without a solid core of ethics. Witness the ever-eroding sanctity of commitment-based relationships in business, personal, and even family lives. We need the ninja lineage now more than ever to help us understand and embrace the identity power of our time, while keeping ourselves grounded in ethics and deeper truth.

There will be chaos beyond the power of strength and intelligence; in the Identity Age, align yourself with those who know how to be.