Efficient Outcomes

We live in a world that is flawed by you, and everyone you do and don't know.  Those everyone's are humans; homo sapiens that reside at the top of the food chain but way below the chain of common sense.

Not to beat up on humans, I love being one, but let's take a look at some primary accusations the rest of living organisms might make if they could, well...only find a way to communicate with us.  One perfect example can be found in a book titled Ishmael.  While I don't purport this novel to answer humanities failures, but it does probe into the culture of our behavior. 

We lack the ability to respond to a fundamental reality of finite resources because in an economic system the value of these resources are externalities that hold little meaning in comparison to wealth building in financial terms.  We fail miserably in efficient outcomes.

Why?  A culture of belief that never ending consumption, is the key to our remaining at the top of the evolutionary chain.  This includes development, a term that has evolved from the establishment of civilization. Humans have a tendency to conquer rather than coexist.  As Darwin might say, survival is based on one's ability to thrive over another organism.  Evidence of this can be seen not only in grand edifice as a symbol of human greatness, but in our crowing achievement of eliminating disease.

To be certain, there is no turning back the magnitude of our achievement, though cataclysmic they may be in

scale.  Sure we will see glimpses of a change in the tides but culture is a difficult thing to change.  Not only are we slow to respond, in many cases we are just to late.  It is human culture that  is the greatest contributor to the accelerating background extinction rate, dominating the landscape with estimates from 1000 to 10,000 times normal extinction rates of other living organisms-- that is the impact of a civilized society.  Wikipedia has a very interesting way of stating it, as long as species have been evolving, species have been going extinct; no species is evolving faster than humans.

Face to face and Social Networks

Today's perception of social networks has evolved in large part due to the advent of the Internet.  One on one meetings and encounters are occurring less frequently as technology evolves to facilitate business meetings, satellite conferences, virtual office, Facebook, even Google's maps, where you get a ground level view of almost any street in every major and not so minor city.  The Internet and now the Cloud, is the keeper of social relationships.  Shut the system down and a virtual or literal paralysis ensues.



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So where does that leave the up-close-and-personal, relationships.  Even the intimate dating services are finding more effective ways for people to size other people up before considering whether or not that is the right person for them; to take it a step further, the reality television also makes assumptions about how to pair people under false pretenses to some degree.  But there are multiple positions to consider in the web of social networks.

One aspect of the networks is how they are bringing people together, flash mobs, social rebellion, research and fact finding (such Julian Assange founder of WikiLeaks), forming a more effective force against other organized forces; those forces may be government, business leaders, or simply young adults using technology to have what they consider fun.  While incidents in London represent more anarchy and dissidents than development of social networks, they nonetheless play an important role in history and the continued evolution of social networks.  And while academia does not consider Wikipedia a valid sources for citing references for authoritativeness in documentation, they are using a system similar to that of major corporations-- and Wikipedia is the epitome of what social networks have the potential to achieve.

But another view of social networks is more conventional and extends back as far as we can trace the elements of human and other animal nature- or all living organisms.  Social networks of this sort have allowed various living organisms to survive millions of years; they have thrived and evolved as a result of their organization and communication around their habits.  Such behaviors have allowed them to reproduce and increase their population over time.  Another attribute of the more conventional method of social networking is the important of capturing the nuances in ones expressions, variations in their voice, and body movements as the mind reads and interprets all of these actions; that ability makes our brains faster than IBM's BlueGeen/ L.  (360 teraflops).  The reason this is significant is that as humans, we need stimulation and interpret multiple environments like no other mechanism in the world.  People need people, despite the amazing accomplishments of technology.

Though I am active on twitter, facebook, blogging etc., there is no substitute for friends coming over for a glass of wine; nothing like the smell of new born breath, the air at 14,000 feet from a Colorado mountain top or the memories of traveling down long dirt roads to visit our great grand parent's farm; and the miracle of first time experiences like scuba diving.  If technology replaced all of those function with a virtual experience, all the Google maps in the world would not serve as a viable substitute.  That being said, the following is also true.  The combination of technology and the human experience takes us to a whole other level.


Technology has granted me the benefit of Couch Surfing, as a result, I can enjoy my human experience in different parts of the world with other like minded people; Meetup serve a similar purpose, allowing me to partake in various activities that I might otherwise do alone with people who share a similar interest in (wine tasting, playing music, hiking mountains, the list is endless-- really!).  And crowd sourcing is the technological advancement that helps these ideas and networks spread and take root in society.


Wikipedia is both a solid social network with multiple expert contributors making entries as well as a exemplary example of new-to-the-scene, crowd sourcing.  doc not have been   In some instances the assembly of such groups helps to create a better sense of solidarity.

If I had to choose at this point in my live I will always select the pleasure of having the human experience but knowing that I can indulge in both brings me great happiness!  And anyone who knows me knows that I live to be happy.

My happy parting advice to all of my readers: whether you find more happiness in conventional social networks or virtual networks, identify 10 things that make you happy, promise yourself that you will do at least one of them each day; and you will be happy for the rest of your life.

Networks and Economic Struggles?

Online the Economist wrote, "The IMF has cut its forecasts for economic growth in its twice-yearly World Economic Outlook. It expects world GDP to increase by 4% in 2011"  .  The research suggest that growth rates have been revised from .1 of a percent to .9 of a percent in different countries.

Evidence of this hard to accept reality, hit home when someone very important in my life, informed me that they would be filing for bankruptcy.  Sometimes the seemingly most unfortunate choices are the best choices, if in such a troubling predicament.  But what has this to do with networks?

After speaking with this friend, she informed me that she went to the federal tax collection agency and stated that the very first question they asked was if she had any affiliation with any social network.  Really!  Since when is who I socialize with or what group I am connected with related to my reconciliation with my back taxes?  As far as I am concerned federal agencies including our political leaders and revenue collection services could just as easily be investigated for malfeasance.  Why? Simply because the wealthy are paying a smaller percentage of taxes than ever before.  At one point in the U.S. the tax rate for the wealthy was nearly 90%. Today with tax loopholes and write-offs, the expense for the wealthy is significantly reduce.  And they pay (at least in the U.S.) is 15% on capital gains.  In contrast, more than 15% of the U.S. population is at or below the poverty level ((2010 U.S. Census), granted that our poverty level is still well above undeveloped nations).

Essentially if you are poor, you are required to reveal more and more about yourself, losing control of your privacy, than if you are wealthy.  However I do not like to use scare tactics to address an issue.  Both Fox and MSNBC hosts of various programs do plenty of shouting and finger-pointing-- attempting to drive fear, while also providing some useful information.  But fear should not be the driver behind making tough choices.

Networks play an important role in our society.  From Palestine to Libya, from Sudan to the United States, from Japan to the Caribbean; social networks help us learn more about what is happening in the world around us.  Maintaining that privacy is critical to feeling a sense of security.  Despite that exploitation of online organization like Facebook and others, networking gives us a sense of interconnectedness.

The fact that I can touch people in Estonia, Japan, Africa, the British Isles, and different parts of South America, from my blog indicates that technology is not really separating us (as was once thought with personal electronic musical devices and mobile telephones).  I respect the confidentiality that my followers deserve, and expect to some degree- I would imagine.  At the same time ( and I don't want to sway back and forth here) I understand the importance of security from violent acts, in any form; from groups that want to act out maliciously, to individuals who bring harm to innocent members of society.  So monitoring is important.  What do I hope for then and where do I stand?

It would be great if the public were more involved in the decision-making.  Just like successful corporations, the government could crowd-source top decisions to come up with truly democratic decisions.  Granted that not everyone has access to technology, but there could potentially be ways to address that as well by looking at algorithms perhaps.

With all of the challenges we face as individuals, it is important that we continue to monitory decisions that are affecting our lives- especially with the advent of so much political turmoil in effect.  When chaos is in play, it is easy to look for answers from people who are purporting to be experts and leaders who are suppose to be performing on our behalf.  This is in no way a request that there be any type of civil disorder, rather that we maintain a watchful eye on policy changes that circumvent the people process.  There was an excellent piece on National Public Radio (npr[ a U.S. broadcast), about how susceptible we are to opinions, when we are seeking answers or disorder is present.  Don't panic, do your research, and use your voice by being active in what actions by anyone (friends, politicians, or experts) influence your life.  Doing so will help curtail the negative impact regulations have on open social networks.

ps happy birthday Jim Henson

Peering into the Future

by Scotland Willis

Peering into the Future is the title for my new book which I expect to be out early to mid next year.  This book is about the impact, implications and phenomena of peer-to-peer networks.

The world is an amazing place from a human perspective, it a benefit we (reasoning, abstract thinking and introspection) we experience as a result of our genetic superiority.  Technology has made this experience more amazing by allowing us to connect over vast spaces and discover things that would once have been considered impossible.

And while technology typically creates isolation and distance among people, the notion of cooperative consumption serves as a medium to help reconnect people; peer-to-peer (p2p) networks serve the same function.  As it turns out, p2p networks bring people with common interests together and familiarize individuals with like-minded people, thereby accelerating the bond and relationship process.  While p2p networks can serve as a vehicle to bring groups together, cooperative consumption serves as a similar medium, but it depends on a surplus system.  I have something that meets your needs and I have little or no use for it at the time.

Key to all of this exchange of goods or services in either system is a pivotal foundation of trust.  Trust is the one element that would force the entire system to collapse.  But with so many hundreds of millions of people engaged the level of compromised trust is not as prevalent as it could be for several reasons.

As we advance the use of the internet system, banks, business and others who depend on it as a resource for their commerce, it is critical that they themselves demonstrate to their customers that the system is trust worthy.  Despite cyber crimes costing hundreds of billions of dollars over the years, the general populations faith in the Internet continue to grow if you look at it in terms of the number of users.  And that decision is what fosters the growth of peer to peer networks.

What once was considered a barrier to human interaction is not serving as a force that brings people together for different reasons; it may be goods or services or it may be a social calling, either way, more people are being connected as the world becomes a smaller social environment.