Michael Meade, D.H.L.: The Two Great Stories of the World
Recently, I have been on panels where people lament how the troubles of the world seem increasingly intractable. I've heard environmentalists suggest that evolution may have reached a dead end with regard to the human species. I've heard pained audiences decry political parties as well as social movements. I have found myself responding with ancient proverbs such as: "The great person allows universal imagination to work through them." It's as if something quite old and truly resilient is required to face the dire array of modern problems, for most of modern life is arranged to take us away from ourselves. Amidst radical environmental problems and massive changes throughout culture, it becomes easy to forget that there are two great and enduring stories found on Earth. We are not accidental citizens of a world gone wrong, not merely faceless members of an age group or statistical, biological blips without inherent meaning.
The Wisdom of Crowds, Revisited: When The Crowd Goes From Wise to Wrong | Artful Choice
How wise is the crowd, really? A great deal of evidence, nicely summarized in James Surowiecki’s The Wisdom of Crowds, suggests, very wise. Crowds seem to be better at providing estimates and coming closer to a more accurate answer, at improving the diversity of opinion, at coordinating action, at facilitating societal functions, even at investing in the stock market. The crowd may not be as wise as we think In the study, participants were asked to provide estimates to a range of questions on geography and crime. The researchers found that, while groups may have been wise at the start of the experiment, as soon as individuals within the group became aware of others’ estimates and choices, the diversity of opinions plummeted. Crowds reduce the diversity of responses As a result of participants learning what everyone else had said, several things happened. Crowd opinion can be misleading Crowds contribute to overconfidence And it’s not just the outside observer who gets caught up.
Social entrepreneurs go Hollywood: The promise of change in 25 words or less
(It’s pretty hard to change the world, if no one wants to follow your thinking…) Curtis Faith has been asking us all about stories. What is your story? Good questions, because stories provide a powerful framework for spreading ideas. Randy Olson, the scientist-turned-filmmaker, regularly lambastes the academic/science community for getting so caught up in the pointy-headed details that they completely forget how real communication happens. Also take a look at the work by Alex (Sandy) Petland, the author of Honest Signals. Yet most scientists (and other big idea people) don’t get it. The thing is, if you want to move your idea from the edge into the mainstream, from the future to the present, you have to package it. This is not the same thing as dumbing it down. That’s why, especially for the “issue entrepreneurs”, stories are the key to changing the world… And no one is better at telling stories (that move a big audiences) than Hollywood. Hollywood Story: Going Hollywood With Your Story
A compact vision of co-intelligence
The Co-Intelligence Institute CII home // Y2K home // CIPolitics home A compact vision of co-intelligence In this essay I offer an overview of co-intelligence, somewhat oversimplified into two parts: collective intelligence and collaborative intelligence. I show how these together suggest a new vision of cultural transformation. Intelligence is the word we commonly use to describe our individual capacity to learn, to solve problems, to plan our future, and to make sense of our inner and outer worlds. Much more could be said about individual intelligence, but for now I want to suggest that this capacity we call intelligence isn't confined to individuals. So we can speak of individual intelligence andcollective intelligence. Although this idea may be new to you, I want to assure you that there really isn't anything very esoteric about it. What really interests me is that when I tell people about co-intelligence, they usually look at me blankly.
» Best Procrastination Tip Ever :zen habits
Post written by Leo Babauta. Your first thought as you look at this article will be, “I’ll read this later.” But don’t. Let the urge to switch to a new task pass. It’ll take you two minutes. I’ve written the book on ending procrastination, but I’ve since come up with a very simple technique for beating everyone’s favorite nemesis. Try it now: Identify the most important thing you have to do today. Clear away distractions. Sit there, and focus on getting started. Pay attention to your mind, as it starts to have urges to switch to another task. But don’t move. Notice also your mind trying to justify not doing the task. Now just take one small action to get started. Get started, and the rest will flow.
Collective Intelligence
Collective Intelligence = "the capacity of a human community to evolve toward higher order complexity thought, problem-solving and integration through collaboration and innovation" (George Por URL = Towards the creation of a ommicentric Ideosphere: Kosmic Alignment. A Principle of Global Unity. By Yasuhiko Genku Kimura. "We human beings are at our best not when we are engaged in abstract solitary reflection or on our individual transformation for its own sake but when we are engaged together in the act of transforming the world. Tom Attlee of the Co-Intelligence Institute has a restricted definition of collective intelligence, which he considers to be 'only one-fifth of co-intelligence', see George Por summarizes: "There are many definitions of collective intelligence available online. I'll start with definitions proposed by the prolific Pierre Levy": Pierre Levy George Por Others
What A Detroit Supper Club Teaches Us About Co-Creativity
A social movement is underway in downtown Detroit. Each month, 100 or so individuals pay $5 for admission to a loft, where they eat a dinner of organic soup (and other foods) prepared by volunteers. Diners share ideas and connections, hear presentations from artists who are working on projects aimed at improving the city, and then vote on which project will receive proceeds from the evening's dinner. In recent years, crowdsourcing has become a trendy tactic for soliciting input and engaging consumers, but in reality this approach is nothing more than an open call for submissions. Yesterday, businesses succeeded through industrial or technological expertise, with little need to converse with consumers. Marketers are beginning to understand that it's no longer viable to work in a vacuum, and that seeking consumer input by casting a wide net into an anonymous pool won't suffice. Sounds simple enough, right? Authenticity, authenticity, authenticity. [Image: Detroit SOUP]
Collectivism on the Web
Collectivism emphasizes on human interdependence and the importance of collective. As probably the greatest collective project of mankind in history, World Wide Web engages enormous practices of collectivism. In this article, we take a brief look at several typical examples of these engagements. Collective Intelligence Collective intelligence is the most well-known engagement of collectivism on World Wide Web. A keen reader may immediately find an interesting comparison: are there any differences between user generated "intelligence" and user generated "content" (or user generated "data")? Content/data is a type of intelligence but at the low end. I foresee that the degree of complexity (as well as the degree of efficient usage) of the collective intelligence on the Web is going to evolve with the Web. Collective Behavior Collective intelligence is not the only practice of collectivism on the Web. Collective behavior is very much difference from collective intelligence. Summary
