In a recent TED presentation, author Clay Shirky advocates for a positive use of the massive cognitive surplus. He states that the world has a trillion hours of brain power each year -- giving individuals time to osity that makes life better. create and participate in community collectives. He urges for a culture of generosity. In citing the civic value of Ushahidi -- a technology for facilititating blog responses and cooperative action, he showcases how people may operate in the digital age.
He states that in society, humans are often driven by social contracts. For example, a day care center has a social contract between the parents and the teachers that the children will be picked up on time. When that social contract is broken, parents feel guilty. However, when a fine was instituted for tardiness, it rid the situation of the social contract and in fact parents were late more often.
Shirky's concept of a "Cognitive Surplus" is an interesting idea. If humans can truly use their brainpower and technical tools for civic responsibility and "good works" society will advance to a more peaceful, thriving place.
I really enjoyed watching Shirky's talk and thought it was very informative. I think he's absolutely right that there's a huge amount of time available to us and a huge amount of talent as well. What I'm not sure of, though, is how to motivate people to use their time and talent before a disaster errupts. In the examples we've seen in Shirky and in Howard, from what I remember, it seems that most of these positive civic unions have formed in the wake of a terrible aftermath. I think it would be great to find some way to pool resources for causes before things like that happen as well.
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