Here he goes again : Galdwell's ideas sort of branch throughout lots of what I've read and met and what I read and meet lately. And especially this :
One reason why it is worth fighting for the establishment of a proper new discipline in Economics, namely Nanoeconomics, focusing on a Human-Scale approach and a sourcing of massive passive social data is that individuals today matter more than ever. They are Super-individuals. Their Impact Potential is nothing like it was three years ago. A simple example is this :
" RED is an EXC-ELL-ENT movie, go see it !! NOW !! "
This could've been my status for the day if I hadn't anything else to say. But the idea is that this status would've actually convinced a bunch of the members of my hesitating Facebook and Twitter entourage to actually go see the movie, because they trust their friend and being empathic beingsm they can see he REA-LLY liked the movie.
I could've told my friends some years ago about a movie I loved but :
- The instant expression : Without these statuses where I can communicate instantly, I could've forgotten to tell my friends
- The loud lasting expression : I might have not been able to express it SO ENTHU-THIASTI-CALLY and keep it posted so long
- The reaching expression : My reach would not have been so wide at any given time since even my Japanese friends got the message
So we're empowered. Great. So why the title ?
Because what is power without anyone to feel it, without the world being affected by it. Memes are one of the manifestation of one's power (as in this latest example that's REA-LLY worth looking at : Boxxy). Dan Dennett approaches the subject just as Galdwell does :
" What's a virus? A virus is a string of nucleic acid with attitude. That is, there is something about it that tends to make it replicate better than the competition does.And that's what a meme is; an information packet with attitude."
[ted id=116]
Contagion. This is what links Galdwell to Bennett. Contagion is at the basis of the Super-Individual's power today. It is how one reaches not just one's direct surrounding but also the distant observer. But what Bennett adds however, and what made me think, is that just as the viruses conquistadors brought with them wiped out the native people of America, memes, ideas today, are generated in specific places spreading in the entire world, affecting virtually everybody making a tale of survival all over again with the most powerful Super-Individual's influencing all the others.
And that is where I wonder : Where is the tipping point ? When will things tip in a way that one paradigm, one set of idea, will prevail, will become the definitive reference ? Did it already happen ? Is it being reversed ? Where in hell is the world of ideas on the Tipping scale ?
Until an answer starts showing, go see RED ;)