Social Media & Evolution
From the Digital Panopticon to the Noosphere
Benjamin Joffe | Plus Eight Star | Jeju, Korea, 2009.09

Benjamin Joffe
벤자민
ベンジャミン
本杰明

4 years
1 year
4 years

www.plus8star.com

mobilemondaybeijing
the mobile professionals community

3D Web Games Team

Agenda
1. Predicting Social Media Evolution
2. The New Public Sphere
3. Social Media & Evolutionary Biology
4. Social Media & Philosophy
5. What can we do today?

Why are we so poor at predicting how
social media evolves?

Offline Social Media

Drinks with Denis
건배!

More is different!

From 1-to-1 to many-to-many

Idea #1
Do not judge new services
by their first iteration

Idea #2
Learn from emerging behaviors

The new Public Sphere

BRAND

Are we forced to participate?

Panopticon
(Prison Concept, 1785)

Creates a sentiment of an
“invisible omniscience”

Digital Panopticon
YOU

Dark Age of Transparency

Privacy = Momentary Anomaly?

“Overreaction Man”

In Korea

In China: “Human Flesh Search”
(人肉搜索)
• Cruelty to animals
• Insensitivity to Sichuan Earthquake victims
• Judging a marital affair
• Corruption case
• Reckless driving

Invisible Killer
(无形杀)
August 2009
Who killed Yin Lan?

Human Search @ LIFT Asia

Recognized someone? Raise your hand!

Did you notice?

Online & Offline
are not
Separate

Offline Twitter

Offline Twitter

Public Place?

Google Street View

Google Street View in Japan
• 2009.02 - Japan: Municipal opposition to Street View
• 2009.02 - Japan: Tokyo gov't invites Google to discuss Street View
• 2008.12 - Japan: Fukuoka Bar Association requests halt to Street View
• 2008.11 - Japan: Suginami Ward proposes removal of Street View images
• 2008.11 - Japan: Street View and the Burakumin
• 2008.10 - Machida city council requests regulation of Street View
• 2008.10 - Japan: Street View and Public Space
• 2008.10 - Japan: Google, the anti-social corporation
• 2008.09 - Japan: The true revolution of Google Street View
• 2008.09 - Japan: Street View's Missing Streets
• 2008.08 - Japan: Debate over Google Street View continues
• 2008.08 - Japan: Letter to Google about Street View

Facial Recognition on Video

What is your country’s definition
of a Public Place?

Idea #1
“Privacy” is being constantly redefined

Idea #2
Be part of the process
(since you’re involved anyway)

What Evolutionary Biology
can tell us about social media

Charles Darwin
“The Origin of Species”
(1859)

Voyage of “The Beagle”

IT Infrastructure
100%
Avg. 7 Mbps
80%
Avg. 15 Mbps
60%
3G users
40% C
hi
n
20% a Avg. 4 Mbps
www.plus8star.com
0%
0% 20% 40% 60% 80%
Internet connections measured above 5Mbps
(Source: Akamai, 4Q08)

“Japan’s cellphones are like the
endemic species that Darwin
encountered on the Galápagos
Islands — fantastically evolved
and divergent from their
mainland cousins”
Takeshi Natsuno
Inventor of i-mode

Techno-Darwinism

Idea #1
Advanced Asian countries
are a rich field for observing
new services & behaviors

Robin Dunbar
“Dunbar Number”
(1992)

Dunbar Number?

Dunbar Number
• Cognitive limit to the number of individuals
with whom any one person can maintain
stable relationships.

Current humans = 150

Idea #2
Social media is limited
by the human brain

What Philosophy
can tell us about the future

Planet-Sized & Social Brain
Jean K. Min Isaac Mao
planetsizebrain.tistory.com www.isaacmao.com

Some Examples
1
2
3

Idea #0.5
The planet-sized brain
needs some work

Twitter & Social media tools
are plugs into people’s thoughts

“Make smart mobs smarter,
not mobbier”
Howard Rheingold

Idea #1
We need to improve
our handling of those new tools

Good for today & tomorrow

How about
the day after tomorrow?

Pierre Teilhard de Chardin
“The Phenomenon of Man”
(1959)
Philosopher, Jesuit Priest, Paleontologist, Geologist

The Noosphere

Geosphere
Biosphere
Noosphere

Thought
Life
Matter
Beginning of the
physical universe Energy

End of the
Spirit
Physical Universe
Thought
Life
Matter
Beginning of the
physical universe Energy

Idea #2
We just scratched the surface
of something mind-boggling

What can we do today?

Social Media = Hype?
1. Social Media tools are evolving
2. Understand what they can do for you
3. Improve critical thinking
4. Pay attention to emerging signs

You’re Involved!
1. Pictures, videos, text
2. Redefine privacy
3. Redefine accountability
4. Earn your Netizen title!

Contacts
www.plus8star.com
benjamin@plus8star.com
+81 | Japan
benjamin0123 +82 | Korea
http://twitter.com/plus8star +86 | China
Telecom & Internet
www.linkedin.com/in/benjaminjoffe
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