Mass Intelligence

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March 20, 2009

Mass Intelligence and iPod Isolation

What do you think Mass Intelligence is? Is it the dumbing down of civilization? Or perhaps, is it the aggregation of knowledge on the internet?

You need to read, The Age of Mass Intelligence to fully understand John Parker's musings. He describes it through examples - the ability to like both hip-hop and classical music. Or a football fanatic who also goes to the London Philharmonic. Basically, I think he uses mass intelligence to explain a breakdown of class or cultural separations. Rather than the football fan fulfilling the stereotype working class, this individual comfortably slips between two previously well-defined cultures.

Back to my original suggestion that it was the aggregation of knowledge by the internet. Because of the internet, we have the ability to glimpse and virtually taste cultures that were previously closed or unavailable because of income, education, or location. Now I can look out on Sydney Harbor or upon Tiananmen Square in real-time. That has to be good, doesn't it? When we get know people or their culture, that erases fears and biases, doesn't it?

There is an opposing phenomenon that I have observed on the large college campuses. When the students walk around, they have their ears plugged into a mobile phone or an iPod. At least 85% of the students walk through their campuses completely closed off to the environment around them and replaced with an environment they feel comfortable. I have been on a small college campus in Nebraska for the past couple of days and impressed by the contrast with what I saw on the University of California - San Diego campus a few weeks ago. On this small campus, the students were engaged in the immediate environment, greeting friends and strangers alike. I digress... I will write more about the contrast between the large and small campuses later. No doubt there are multiple phenomena responsible for the contrast, but the large campus self-isolation concerns me.

If the students are isolating themselves to the environment that they are walking through, are they doing the same in the classroom? Do they isolate themselves from new ideas or new cultures? As I commented earlier, it is in opposition to the mass intelligence that our present technology affords us. Is it a way to cope with overwhelming information overload? Have we reached the limits of what the human character can process? Or is it something else?