Fixing a Broken World

[Q & A] In a globally connected world, networked intelligence could solve many of our problems.

THE MARK: What will be the next big technological innovation to change society?

DON TAPSCOTT: Well, I think it’s underway, and it’s the mobile revolution. We’re in the early days of pervasive, companioned computing, where our intellect is being augmented and our ability to communicate with others transformed, and this is now reaching out into every nook and cranny of our economy, society, and daily life. It’s transforming, and enabling us to transform, all of our institutions – if we can find the will to do it.

THE MARK: In Macrowikinomics, you explore the impact of increased communication and processing power. What exactly is "networked intelligence"?

TAPSCOTT: This is not an “information age,” as some people have called it. The printing press, radio, television, broadcast technologies, and early days of computing all gave us access to information. The internet, on the other hand, gives us access to the intelligence contained in the crania of other people on a global basis.

I think it’s no longer a fanciful idea that, through these vast networks of glass and air, we can share not only information and knowledge, but also our intelligence, and that we can even create something we’ve never seen before – a kind of consciousness that extends beyond an individual to a group, an organization, a community, or even a society. If we can do that, it may be the precondition for solving many of the problems that ail us in the world.

THE MARK: Would this collective consciousness be more than the sum of its parts?

TAPSCOTT: Yes. In the past, consciousness has always been restricted to a single individual. But now, it’s feasible that consciousness can expand to multiple individuals, and the implications are profound, to say the least. It’s going to affect everything: how we innovate, create wealth, orchestrate capability, create public value, and solve global problems. And it’s going to change the nature of leadership; we could start to think about collective intelligence as collective leadership.

Related Links:

The Ingenuity Series: How technology is redefining our world.

Do We Have a Right to be Forgotten?