Networks, Information and Society
by Rohan Dixit, Northwestern University
By this time in the Digital Age, many electronics consumers are familiar with Moore’s Law, even if not by name. The “law” comes from the observation that computer processing power tends to double every two years, an exponential trend. The implications of this exponential growth pattern are manifold, but we see its effects in our own lives when a new laptop bought for Christmas becomes obsolete by the spring thaw. But, fascinatingly, it appears that Moore’s Law may represent a window into a larger phenomenon that is left largely undiscussed in modern society- the accelerating rate of human innovation itself [1].
One of the most shocking illustrations of this trend lies in the exponential rise in so-called ‘paradigm shifts’ in history of the universe and life on Earth. This chart marks events considered major watersheds in human cultural evolution, like the invention of the printing press or the first bioengineered organism. The trend is unmistakably exponential over recorded history (*note: it’s plotted on a logarithmic scale, so this linear graph implies an exponential relationship).
There are multiple views as to why this is occurring, but one interesting perspective lies in an emerging field called complexity science. Imagine one of the neurons in your brain for a moment. Alone, it’s a complex but useless mechanical unit, incapable of learning on its own when separated from its 100 billion fellow neurons. But add enough of these simple components together and, past a certain threshold, complex behavior emerges from simple underlying relationships.
Individual humans and human society could be analogous to the neuron/brain relationship. Past a certain threshold, complex results can emerge from large numbers of networked people. Take Wikipedia, the open-access, open-review online encyclopedia. Seven years after its launch in 2000, Wikipedia had over 5.3 million articles and, according to an article published in Nature, was on par with the venerable Encyclopedia Britannica concerning science content [2]. So, growth in the size of human networks leads to more efficient organization. As more and more users around the globe begin to network together, through mobile phones or the web or both, astonishing results will continue to occur in tandem.
Pundits have proclaimed the advent of the “Internet age” for almost a decade now, but applications of the internet towards non-business ventures has received only superficial coverage. Nevertheless, the truly revolutionary function of the internet is actually the efficient transmission of information. The days of poring through textbooks and cross-referencing in dusty libraries are rapidly coming to a close—students and professionals alike [3] now Google just about anything and instantly have hundreds of credible sources assembled from all over the world (and, increasingly, backwards in history as web editions of thousands of classic texts are published online.) Meanwhile, internet movements like Open Access and the Public Library of Science (PLoS) are working towards the tantalizingly close fruit of universal, free access to peer-reviewed literature from all scientific publications around the world. This is effectively the democratization of science and, more broadly, information itself.
When examined in the context of the massive popularity of social networking sites like Myspace and Facebook, which so far claim about 140 million users, the trend towards instantaneous, universal access to information of all types begins to crystallize. In fact, these networks are such efficient transmitters of relevant data between users that the CIA recently instituted its own private Myspace and del.icio.us knockoffs strictly for its intelligence community [4]. (“del.icio.us” is the quirky web address of one of the emerging “bookmark organizing” sites which allows users to save news articles, online radio stations or interesting websites of any type in a format that is easily searchable to both you and, if you choose, everyone else.)
These seemingly divergent web services are becoming so hugely popular because they simply facilitate information transfer between many individuals in the most efficient way possible. And this, ultimately, captures the fundamental essence of any type of communication between humans— and makes it many orders of magnitude faster.
There are political and social possibilities inherent in these networks that are only beginning to be tapped. Youtubed videos of police brutality in Los Angeles have been caught on cell phone cameras, uploaded the same night and then virally spread online until being picked up by mainstream television news corporations [5]. Facebook has added optional applications that allow people to fundraise for political candidates online. And Google (which bought Youtube recently) hosted one of this year’s Democratic Party debates in conjunction with CNN by relaying video questions from internet users to the candidates, who themselves had already posted campaign videos on the website.
Undoubtedly, information is king—and since knowledge is power, as the old adage goes, the full potential of the internet may actually lie in shifting societal control over information dissemination from rigid constructs like radio-television-print media conglomerates, professional scientific journals and governments alike back to the jacked-in, exponentially growing global population. Despite major setbacks to increasing networked efficiency (take massive internet censorship in China [6] or rewritten oil spill Wikipedia entries by Exxon-Mobil employees [7]) the world-wide trend towards free and open network information is now probably unstoppable. Expect some complex results.
References
[1] Graph of world human population (in millions) from 10,000 B.C. until present. Creative Commons license. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Population_curve.svg
[2] Internet encyclopaedias go head to head (2005) Nature. http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v438/n7070/full/438900a.html
[3]Googling for a diagnosis: use of Google as a diagnostic aid (2006) British Medical Journal (BMJ).
http://www.bmj.com/cgi/content/abstract/bmj.39003.640567.AEv1
[4]http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/6e2648ea-5014-11dc-a6b0-0000779fd2ac.html
[5] http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/15649790/
[6] http://www.itbusiness.ca/it/client/en/home/News.asp?id=48400
