Netocracy – The Network Society

The 4 paradigm shifts in our history

I was on the Sprinkler event here in Varberg, Sweden yesterday and saw Alexander Bard give one of the most insightful talks I have ever heard. He talks to us entrepreneurs about the paradigm shift that is occurring in our society today.

Photo by Richard Tholin

First some history:
1. The first paradigm shift occurred when we started using the spoken word some 100 000 years ago.

2. The second was when we started using the written language. Before then the most valuable person in the tribe was the old woman who knew everything. She know what to eat and what not to eat. She new how to keep things social with other tribes and avoid too much conflict. This was needed to exchange genes with other tribes.

Now we could write all our knowledge down and that made it possible to build societies.

3. The third Revolution was Mass-media that started with the invention of the printing press. With it came books, newspapers, paper money, radio and television. The information was spread top down.

The was perfect for the industrial revolution that made it possible for the losers living in cities to take away all the power from the Nobility living in the countryside.

When Napoleon come to Germany he was seen by Hegel who lay the ground for what Bard calls “The Napolean Society”.
This is a top down hierarchical society that came to rule the world until now. Where state, bureaucracy, police, army, school and hospitals where all being governed by a very hierarchical system.

We are to bring down all of this relic Napolean Armies now. Together with our new Network Society we bring forth the fourth paradigm shift. The old capitalistic society will soon be replaced. Let the revolution commence!

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4. Netocracy

Today we stands before the fourth paradigm shift. The Network society. What Alexander calls Netocracy in his now 12-year-old book.

— Where social status generates money instead of the old way.
— Where old top down Media will mean less if it isn’t interactive.
— Where our identity is our social network.
— Where Attention Rules. Attention = Credibility * Renown.

How do you increase your Attention
–> Does lots of people already know you — Concentrate your energy on doing good credible work
–> If you already do good work — Put all your energy on becoming famous and renown

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Conclusion

I have long thought what we can do to connect the world. So that we together can save the human life on planet earth. What Alexander says rhymes very well together with my own thoughts on the subject.

I for one will work very hard to make this new society a reality.

/Michael Sillion
Follow me at Twitter:
http://twitter.com/#!/LordSillion

Top 10 Heroes of 2011

I’m going to present a list of 10 persons that inspired me or touched me in some way during the year of 2011. They are presented in a top 10 style of way in no particular order other than what I am feeling right now.

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Number 10 — Will Day

After seeing Will Day giving his speech on TEDxWWF about the current state on Earth and the enormous challenges we face I was convinced that we need do something drastic to save us. Neither our politicians nor out biggest companies will do enough in time. It’s up to us to do it in a big crowd-sourced projects together for a big Epic win that is required of us.

Sustainability is not just a buzzword but the single most important thing we will do if we are gonna be around in another 1000 years. Although you can’t tell in the same way that the Romans couldn’t tell. our age is coming to an end: The Age of Oil
See Will Day and his speech here:
Is the world’s current economic model really sustainable?

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Number 9 — David Eagleman

I am also a Possibilian now. I found David Eagleman and his 2 speeches thorough the School of Life. I then went on to buy and read his book Icognito. He is a very charming neuroscientist brings forth the message that there are many wills in our brain that act in conflict with each others making the decisions that we late take credit for. The unconscious rule us. We are just along for the ride 🙂

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Number 8 — Mark Zuckenberg

After seeing “A Conversation with Mark Zuckerberg” from Web 2.0 Summit 2010 I was really impressed with the real Mark even though The Social Network is one of my favorite movies. He was one of the things inspiring me to push forward into the unknown.

There is an interesting interview where he talks about the real events from creating Facebook

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Number 7 — Richard Dawkins

I have never seen or read anything from directly from Richard Dawkins before. Last year I saw my first documentary staring Charles Darwin featured by Richard Dawkins called The Genius Of Charles Darwin. I was really taken by his charm and intellect and we really feel with his frustration to argument with the creationists. There are even some extra interviews to see and the one that stands out is where Richard and Steven Pinker has over an hour long conversation standing still talking about the evolution. Now I am big fan of Dawkins to say the least.

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Number 6 — Steven Pinker

We move right on to the man mentioned in the prevision interview with Dawkins namely Steven Pinker. He has been called the Rockstar of science and I can see why. Last year he published his book “The Better Angles of our Nature“. I haven’t read this insightful book book but I have seen his talk from the Royal Geographical Society on 1st November 2011. You can see it here in 3 parts. First he presents the his research with a lots of statistics from his book, then he sits down and talks to Matt Ridley and last the audience get to ask him questions. The last part is the best if you are only going to see one of them 🙂

It all combines downs to that we are living in the most peaceful and non-violence years in all of human history.

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Top 5 to come next

This concludes the first part of my top 10 list of my personal Heroes of 2011. Stay tuned for top 5!

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/Michael Sillion
Follow me at Twitter:
http://twitter.com/#!/LordSillion