Evolution in Internet time: The next big thing
Yochai Benkler says that collaborative projects such as Wikipedia, the Open Directory Project, NASA’s SETI@Home and Linux are examples of the next stage of human organization. I believe him. I think we are poised for the a period of unparalleled creativity in the history of our planet, evolving at lightning speed. Or as we said back in the 1990s, in “Internet time.” All because people like to help each other and don’t mind doing it for free.
Biological evolution generally occurs from a state of less complexity to a state of greater complexity. Nature ensures her own efficiency by not reinventing the wheel with every new species she creates. Generally, once nature identifies a pattern in a genetic code that works toward the survival of the creature, like a blossom for nectar transmission, a heart to pump blood, a sweat gland to help regulate body temperature or an eyeball for vision, she tends to build that feature into future permutations of that specific code. By adding a new level of programming on top of an already well-established set of instructions, each new species contains a strong foundation of time-tested DNA sequences. This is one of the simple ways through which nature transmits the experience and wisdom bestowed by ancient life to her progeny.
Dr. Jill Bolte Taylor
That block quote is from Dr. Jill Bolte Taylor, a neuroanatomist (brain scientist) who has written an enlightening account of losing access to the left side of her brain after a stroke, “A Stroke of Insight.” The book is ground-breaking in many ways and I still can’t understand why they don’t sell it at my local bookstore.
With so many contributors worldwide building on each new Internet success, developments are evolving so rapidly, you (I) can hardly keep up. From 1995 to 2000, look at just some of what was created — and most of us were still on dial-up modems: Netscape, Ebay, Amazon, Yahoo, newspapers online (I helped start charlotte.com in 1995), to name a few.
Look at what’s become part of our culture in the last five years: Google, Napster,YouTube, GPS, blogs, cameras in cellphones. (Disclosure: I was one of those who thought people would never use a camera in a cellphone.)
Look at what’s taken hold in just the past year or two: Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, digg.com.
Of course, a lot of web sites that suck were created that no one recalls except the Wayback Machine. But along the way, one great idea spread through the blogosphere in hours, and it inspired millions of people to collaborate on projects for free, just for the love of doing them and helping each other out.
I can’t wait for the next big thing.
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Tags: collaboration, evolution, Open source, right brain
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August 22, 2008 at 9:01 pm
[...] It’s real easy to use. Just another example of a kid in his room coding up something that could change the world. “It was a really selfish thing in the beginning,” Karp told the Observer. “I wanted a [...]