Chapter 9
Networked Minds
Where Human Evolution Is Heading
How ever selfish man may be supposed, there are evidently some
principles in his nature, which interest him in the fortune of
others, and render their happiness necessary to him, though he
derives nothing from it.
—Adam Smith
Having studied the technological and social forces shaping our societies, we now turn to
the evolutionary forces. Among the millions of species on earth, humans are truly unique.
What is the recipe for our success? What makes us special? How do we make decisions?
How will we evolve? I argue that the particular combination of social abilities, diversity and
our hunger for information drives societies and their cultural evolution at a speed, which
is a thousand times faster than biological evolution! In fact, humans are curious by nature
– we are a social, information-driven species. And that is why the explosion in the data
volume and processing capacity will transform our societies more fundamentally than any
other technology in the past.
People have been amazed by the power of many minds at least since the “wisdom
of the crowd” was first discovered and demonstrated. The “wisdom of the crowd”
means a phenomenon whereby the average of many independent judgments tends
to be superior to expert judgments. A frequently cited example first reported by
Sir Francis Galton (1822–1911) is the estimation of the weight of an ox.
1 Galton
observed villagers trying to estimate the weight of an ox at a country fair, and noted
that, although no one villager guessed correctly, the average of everyone’s guesses
was extremely close to the true weight. Today, there are many more examples demonstrating the “wisdom of crowds”, and this is often considered to underpin the success
of democracies.
2
Of course, an argument can also be made for the “madness of crowds”. In fact,
at the time of Gustave Le Bon (1841–1931), the attention focused on undesirable
aspects of mass psychology as exhibited by a rioting mob, for example. This was
seen to be the result of a dangerous emotional contagion, and governments to this
day tend to feel uneasy about crowds. However, there is a way to immunize people to
some extent against emotional contagion: good education. This is important, because
crowds can have many good sides, too.
1 Galton [1].
2 Surowiecki [2].
© Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021
D. Helbing, Next Civilization,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-62330-2_9
175
Networked Minds
Where Human Evolution Is Heading
How ever selfish man may be supposed, there are evidently some
principles in his nature, which interest him in the fortune of
others, and render their happiness necessary to him, though he
derives nothing from it.
—Adam Smith
Having studied the technological and social forces shaping our societies, we now turn to
the evolutionary forces. Among the millions of species on earth, humans are truly unique.
What is the recipe for our success? What makes us special? How do we make decisions?
How will we evolve? I argue that the particular combination of social abilities, diversity and
our hunger for information drives societies and their cultural evolution at a speed, which
is a thousand times faster than biological evolution! In fact, humans are curious by nature
– we are a social, information-driven species. And that is why the explosion in the data
volume and processing capacity will transform our societies more fundamentally than any
other technology in the past.
People have been amazed by the power of many minds at least since the “wisdom
of the crowd” was first discovered and demonstrated. The “wisdom of the crowd”
means a phenomenon whereby the average of many independent judgments tends
to be superior to expert judgments. A frequently cited example first reported by
Sir Francis Galton (1822–1911) is the estimation of the weight of an ox.
1 Galton
observed villagers trying to estimate the weight of an ox at a country fair, and noted
that, although no one villager guessed correctly, the average of everyone’s guesses
was extremely close to the true weight. Today, there are many more examples demonstrating the “wisdom of crowds”, and this is often considered to underpin the success
of democracies.
2
Of course, an argument can also be made for the “madness of crowds”. In fact,
at the time of Gustave Le Bon (1841–1931), the attention focused on undesirable
aspects of mass psychology as exhibited by a rioting mob, for example. This was
seen to be the result of a dangerous emotional contagion, and governments to this
day tend to feel uneasy about crowds. However, there is a way to immunize people to
some extent against emotional contagion: good education. This is important, because
crowds can have many good sides, too.
1 Galton [1].
2 Surowiecki [2].
© Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021
D. Helbing, Next Civilization,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-62330-2_9
175