Social Physics: How Good Ideas Spread-The Lessons from a New Science
Written by Alex Pentland
Narrated by Robert Petkoff
4/5
()
Currently unavailable
Currently unavailable
About this audiobook
From one of the world's leading data scientists, a landmark tour ofthe new science of idea flow, offering revolutionary insights into the mysteries of collective intelligence and social influence.
If the Big Data revolution has a presiding genius, it is MIT's Alex "Sandy" Pentland. Over years of groundbreaking experiments, he has distilled remarkable discoveries significant enough to become the bedrock of a whole new scientific field: social physics. Humans have more in common with bees than we like to admit: We're social creatures first and foremost. Our most important habits of action-and most basic notions of common sense-are wired into us through our coordination in social groups. Social physics is about idea flow, the way human social networks spread ideas and transform those ideas into behaviors.
Thanks to the millions of digital bread crumbs people leave behind via smartphones, GPS devices, and the Internet, the amount of new information we have about human activity is truly profound. Until now, sociologists have depended on limited data sets and surveys that tell us how people say they think and behave, rather than what they actually do. As a result, we've been stuck with the same stale social structures-classes, markets-and a focus on individual actors, data snapshots, and steady states. Pentland shows that, in fact, humans respond much more powerfully to social incentives that involve rewarding others and strengthening the ties that bind than incentives that involve only their own economic self-interest.
Pentland and his teams have found that they can study patterns of information exchange in a social network without any knowledge of the actual content of the information and predict with stunning accuracy how productive and effective that network is, whether it's a business or an entire city. We can maximize a group's collective intelligence to improve performance and use social incentives to create new organizations and guide them through disruptive change in a way that maximizes the good. At every level of interaction, from small groups to large cities, social networks can be tuned to increase exploration and engagement, thus vastly improving idea flow.
Social Physics will change the way we think about how we learn and how our social groups work-and can be made to work better, at every level of society. Pentland leads readers to the edge of the most important revolution in the study of social behavior in a generation, an entirely new way to look at life itself.
Related to Social Physics
Related audiobooks
Get Big Things Done: The Power of Connectional Intelligence Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Humanity Reimagined: Where We Go From Here Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsWhose Global Village?: Rethinking How Technology Shapes Our World Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Social Media at Work: How Networking Tools Propel Organizational Performance Rating: 2 out of 5 stars2/5Cyberpsychology: Mind and Internet Relationship Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsDesigning for Democracy: How to Build Community in Digital Environments Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsPower to the Public: The Promise of Public Interest Technology Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsSociety and the Internet, 2nd Edition: How Networks of Information and Communication are Changing Our Lives Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsElevate the Debate: A Multi-layered Approach to Communicating Your Research Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsBig Mind: How Collective Intelligence Can Change Our World Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Information and Society Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Collaborative Society Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5ICT & Democracy Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsNews and Democratic Citizens in the Mobile Era Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsDesign Justice: Community-Led Practices to Build the Worlds We Need Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5How Data Happened: A History from the Age of Reason to the Age of Algorithms Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Raising the Floor: How a Universal Basic Income Can Renew Our Economy and Rebuild the American Dream Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Throwing Sheep in the Boardroom: How Online Social Networking Will Transform Your Life, Work and World Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsSUMMARY - Here Comes Everybody: The Power Of Organizing Without Organizations By Clay Shirky Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Science of Managing Our Digital Stuff Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Born Digital: The Story of a Distracted Generation Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Marketplace of Attention: How Audiences Take Shape in a Digital Age Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5If It's Smart, It's Vulnerable Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Social Butterflies: Reclaiming the Positive Power of Social Networks Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5We Have Root: Even More Advice from Schneier on Security Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Autonomous Transformation: Creating a More Human Future in the Era of Artificial Intelligence Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsMarketing in the Participation Age: A Guide to Motivating People to Join, Share, Take Part, Connect, and Engage Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsCyber Privacy: Who Has Your Data and Why You Should Care Rating: 2 out of 5 stars2/5
Science & Mathematics For You
The Highly Sensitive Person Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Adventures of Amina al-Sirafi: A Novel Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Living Untethered: Beyond the Human Predicament Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5What Happened to You?: Conversations on Trauma, Resilience, and Healing Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Waking Up: A Guide to Spirituality Without Religion Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Radiolab: Journey Through The Human Body Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge and the Teachings of Plants Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5How Emotions Are Made: The Secret Life of the Brain Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Radiolab: The Feels Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Radiolab: Mixtape: How The Cassette Changed The World Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Overstory Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Cosmos: A Personal Voyage Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Hidden Life of Trees: What They Feel, How They Communicate Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Neuroscientist Who Lost Her Mind: My Tale of Madness and Recovery Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Marshmallow Test: Mastering Self-Control Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Salt: A World History Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Fuzz: When Nature Breaks the Law Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Starry Messenger: Cosmic Perspectives on Civilization Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Midnight in Chernobyl: The Story of the World's Greatest Nuclear Disaster Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Algorithms to Live By: The Computer Science of Human Decisions Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Anatomy of a Breakthrough: How to Get Unstuck When It Matters Most Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Broken (in the best possible way) Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Free Will Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Packing for Mars: The Curious Science of Life in the Void Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Expectation Effect: How Your Mindset Can Change Your World Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5
Reviews for Social Physics
8 ratings0 reviews