Share This Course!

I found this recent article on Jaron Lanier entitled “The Web Gone Sour” rather thought-provoking as well as reiterating some of the themes explored in Share This Course.  Among these are the notions of connectivity, hyperintelligence and the balancing of the individual and the community (drawing parallels here so these weren’t the exact words in the article, ok?)

The article writes,

One of the main targets of Lanier’s critique is the concept of the “wisdom of the crowds” or the “hive mind”. This is the idea beloved of so many social media enthusiasts that the collective wisdom of a large number of people, generally harnessed online, will exceed that of the individual.

I think the internet, as with anything within Information Technology, is a tool – valued for its potential and use. Hence, its value depends on the people who see its potential and use. It’s about the people.  Technology, no matter how advanced or ‘super’, is useless if not used….as I learned years ago, sometimes there is merit in stating the obvious (the purpose of Philosophy as a course of study, I believe).

So what has this got to do with us here?

Well, I think that this really highlights the goal of hyperempowerment because that brings the focus (and value) back on the individual, where it starts. The individual who shares and participates in the sharing culture to build hyperintelligence is thereby empowered as part of the process. It is not about the media that connects us but that which we eventually become for partaking in the process and the product of it.

Of course, this is just my interpretation of it. What do you think?

Many years ago, when I studied to be a preacher-man, I learned how to write a strong sermon.  The best sermons have three parts: an opening, an exegesis, and a closing.  Put together, these three elements create a dramatic arc which the congregation can latch onto and follow.  Nearly all of my lectures and public talks – as can be seen on my other blog – are presented in three parts.  It seems to work well, whether the subject matter is biblical or technical.  All these years of breaking everything into threes may have affected the way I think.  It’s become difficult for me to think outside of this ‘rule of threes’.

Just as in my earlier book, The Playful World, Share This Book is structurally broken into thirds.  In the first third I want to cover the sharing of culture – that is, all the ways we have become expert in the sharing of various forms of media: songs, videos, links, thoughts, and so on.  This will not be presented as something new, but as the foundation for what follows: the sharing of knowledge.  When the sharing of culture becomes directed and specific to a domain – whether that might be Star Wars or mental health or French cooking – it transcends the contributions of any single individual, and can create a condition of group intelligence, or ‘hyperintelligence’.

Once hyperintelligence emerges, anything is possible.  For example, community of self-professed geeks might take on Scientology (ANONYMOUS).  When applied to the achievement of a goal, hyperintelligence translates into hyperempowerment: individuals punch far above their weight.  That is a new thing, something which destabilizes every institution in the 21^st century.

Three sections: culture, knowledge and power. It’s a sermon, of sorts, designed to illuminate those who hear it.  With your help.

I thought I’d share another picture with you to prompt some discussion.

What you see below is what I have conceptualised after having reread a few of Mark’s articles on changing culture and the various ‘hyper’ terms that we have been studying over the last few weeks.

This was a slightly more difficult exercise than my attempts of the first schematic I shared with you and I am not quite as confident on it’s capture of the various notions.  But I figure, why worry about not getting it exactly right when I have a group of people who will examine it and provide useful feedback on how it may be improved, not least for the fact that amongst you is the author of the articles I read to construct the picture.

In contrast to my (consciously provocative) depiction of the features of our current culture, I have given an interpretation of the features of the new culture emerging.  Note that we are only looking at a limited set of features and the picture is not really capable of describing either the current or the emerging culture as a whole.

The culture is changing

Three weeks have passed,  The holidays have come and gone, leaving nothing but a vaguely bloated sense of self in their wake.  And the visitors have been sent home.  The question on all our minds: what’s next?

As originally envisioned, the actual process of writing Share This Book starts from today.  I am going to be drafting the introductory chapter to the work over this week – while also getting caught up on a number of other tasks.  Chapters will not appear daily; most likely they’ll appear weekly, or perhaps twice a week.  Writing is an intense business, and can’t be hurried.

The interesting work beings after these chapters get posted.  That’s when we can all set to work on them.  Do they make sense?  Do they prove the points their trying to make?  Do they flow?  What else can we add – from a wealth of possible examples, stories and anecdotes – to improve the arguments?  And what has been mistakenly left out?  The raw chapters are a starting point, a framework for discussion.  They give us something we can collaboratively build upon.

The basic argument of Share This Book is very simple: hyperconnectivity leads to hyperintelligence leads to hyperempowerment.  But saying it in a way that anyone can understand it – and believe it – will take a few hundred pages.

Sharing underlies everything.  Sharing is the engine which drives all of this forward, both as the theme of the book, and in the creation of the book.  Sharing the work, sharing the creativity, sharing the trials and triumphs, that’s what we’re in for now.  That’s what Share This Course! has always been aiming toward.  We know each other, we trust each other, we have a place to meet, and many tools to work with.  Now we begin.