Written by Mihai Dragan on Wednesday, February 3rd, 2010 ( Start discussion )
Tags: internet, new-age, social system, utopia
Or rather … the country. The continent. The world of the Internet.
A rather interesting idea crossed my mind last night. I was thinking about the global challenges that humanity is facing today. The ones we all know about: global warming, crash of the economy as we knew it, globalization, unequal distribution of wealth (read some about it here) and many others.
I thought about the ants. As individuals they are insignificant. As a group they are amazing. They construct structures we are not able to (maintaining the proportions). They are organized and act as a whole organism.
So do humans, but with one big issue – the communication. We worked pretty well in tribes, cities but now we have to communicate globally. Our social structures are expanding. The rules we use to organize do not apply any longer. What rules should we establish now?
The mind of the many
The internet is a chaotic and at the same time a self organizing thing. A brain if you like. Its neurons are the people that use it. The connections – its synapses. We started thinking globally and not just as a metaphor.
We might now use this concept and develop it. We could create a new country, a new continent, with new rules that apply to new times.
This structure would not be one led by governments but by the best performing citizens, just as our brain controls our body. There won’t be any taxes that we don’t already pay. The economics would be self balancing and self adjusting.
Social status would not matter. What would matter would be the outcome of one’s efforts. The best intellectuals, the best concepts would rise to the top, no matter the race, sex or ethnicity.
The system would be called Internetism, the social system that gathers the best of previous ones.
Is it an utopia or a reality we are yet to accept?
Written by Mihai Dragan on Wednesday, August 12th, 2009 ( 3 responses )
Tags: Analytics, guesswork, internet, online statistics, samples, statistics
Today I’ve received news of another statistic study. It stated 2 percent of romanians wish to relocate in rural areas. The study was conducted on a “representative sample” of 1100 people.
I will not talk about romanians relocating to rural areas. It’s boring. I will talk about the concept of statistics and the changes that need to be taken to reach the next level.
The “representative sample” of 1100 people is no more than 0.005% of the total population. So … how could this sample be “representative”?
The answer lies in the phisical ability to conduct the study. There is only that much a company can do. Back in the day, when Statistics was born as a science there was no way anyone can theoritize the appearence of something like the internet, the impact it had or the fast spread it gained.
I grew up learning on the internet. I failed once the Statistics class, not being one of my favourites in college. However, what I did learn on the internet is that samples can be way larger than the standard 1000, data can be collected easier and faster than by just “asking for answers” and many others.
Statistics need an upgrade. Because now it’s more guesswork than science.
Written by Mihai Dragan on Tuesday, August 11th, 2009 ( Start discussion )
Tags: collective conscious, humanity, internet, jung, thinking, twitter
What are we thinking? I mean what are we ALL thinking? Jung theoratized that we may have all something that he called “collective unconscious”, a part of the unconscious, shared by all humanity, a result of previous experience.
It is ”a reservoir of the experiences of our species.” Something we inherit and pass on.
I was amazed to find this theory as I felt humanity tends to reach something I would call collective thinking (the sum and sinergy of all human information and intelligence). The concept is not new. Asimov, the SF writer, wrote about the concept in his well known Foundation Series. Others have thought and talked about it.
As unlikely as it may seem I think we are close to something of the kind. Twitter (yes, ha, ha … Twitter) is at the moment the concept most likely to reach something of the kind. People talking, thinking, communicating together may be the dawn of a new era for human kind.
The era of the collective conscious.
Written by Mihai Dragan on Friday, November 7th, 2008 ( 2 responses )
Tags: denis florent, internet, radio
Among others there would be Denis Florent. When I first met him I couldn’t believe the guy can manage a big radio station and at the same time know how Typo 3 works and what is RSS or AJAX.
Today I have discovered his blog. Denis, when do you find time ?
Written by Mihai Dragan on Tuesday, October 28th, 2008 ( One response )
Tags: china, free speech, google, internet, microsoft, privacy, yahoo
I can’t tell if it’s just another PR move ( I think it is ) but the giants of technology – Yahoo, Microsoft and Google – got together to sustain something called The Global Network Initiative.
The Global Network Initiative is a project sustaining free speech and the privacy of users. The companies have been under heavy fire lately after offering confidential information regarding their users’ data. It is well known the fact that Yahoo China’s actions have led to the imprisonment of some dissidents .
Let’s see what the document says: the companies will “narrowly interpret and implement government demands that compromise privacy”. Oh wow. They will act slower in turning private data to the governments.
While I am not sure this is all these companies can do I also know the subject is a bit more complicated. Take Yahoo for example. Maybe the fact that it turned over the private data has led to the imprisonment of those people. Than again we do not know how much the other Chinese internet users benefit from Yahoo simply being accessible to China (even censored).
Being born in an ex-communist country ( Romania was a communist country for over 50 years, until 1990 ) I understand how harsh the lack of information can be. The internet is China’s window to the world. If something will change there it will change slowly. With better educated people a country can evolve faster, it can change faster and China sure needs change.
Yahoo’s executives would do much more damage to the people of China by not cooperating with the communist party. Weird, huh? By depriving the country of access to worldwide news and views it would just stop millions of people from getting to understand where they stand and what can they do for themselves.
After all … it is just a choice between free speech and free thought.
