Life is a networked thing — a distributed being. It is one organism extended in space and time. There is no individual life. Life entails interconnections, links, and shared multiples. Ant, we are of the same blood, you and I.
— Out of Control by Kevin Kelly
Cognitively Aroused
Subtitled The New Biology of Machines Social Systems and the Economic World, the book Out of Control by Kevin Kelly takes a fresh look at the prospects for trending scientific, technological, economic, and social progress, from the biological point of view. The book touches upon a wide range of topics, from social ecology to networked industries, from prevalent distributed, parallel systems to their doomed out of control, from explosive information to adaptive coevolution then to self-regulation achieved through open evolution. “Machines are becoming biological and the biological is becoming engineered.” The trajectories of human beings have already revealed several cognitive arousals. This time, what we have arranged is the marriage of ecology and technics, which gives birth to the new being, ecotech.
Going forward, as all the beings evolve, parallel, distribute, nest, and win, chaos is quietly waiting for human society. The only way out of the woods is through “alliances, partnerships, and collaboration” among all beings/ human beings and machines. Evolution arrives inevitably. Revolution guides us to adaption and survival among constant changes. This is the methodology illustrated by Kelly in his book.
The Hive Mind Theory
The most impressive concept in Out of Control is reflected in its swarm model, where a thousand clock springs try to simultaneously run a parallel, self-sustaining system. The model describes a bee swarm as a superorganism, a networked being composed of many interlinked parts. This distributed system runs on what we call collective consciousness. There are four distinct facets of distributed being that supply vivisystems: the absence of imposed centralized control; the autonomous nature of subunits; the high connectivity between the subunits; the webby nonlinear causality of peers influencing peers.
These concepts serve well as management philosophy for enterprises.
- Decentralization
Almost all teams get first-hand experiences from interaction with users and the market. Resort to hands-on sensitivity and intuition empowers swift market response.
- Distribution
This model poses challenges to vertical organization structure. The matrix management relies on functional units to carry out user-and-market-oriented services.
- Teamwork
Horizontal liaison and collaboration across units are encouraged to bridge isolated authority and ownership, with a further intention for enhanced overall core competitiveness.
- Adaption
Team members learn and grow as the market climate changes constantly.
This flock theory based on beehive boasts strong adaptability. For example, the human can build up a response system for preset stimuli in the way a clock does. But for unprecedented stimuli or extensive adjustment, the swarm model is called for. There, survival or adaption are not interrupted even if several out of all parts die off.
The system goes through self-evolution also. Only for a swarm system, an adaption spearheaded by one part can be assimilated over time, from the body to the genes or from one individual to a population. Noncollective systems, however, cannot evolve in a biological way. Collective systems, built upon multitudes in parallel, also harbor redundancy as well as resilience. Individuals don’t count. Minor failures ebb in the hubbub. Major ones are eventually soothed by becoming small defects at the next highest level on a hierarchy.
Simple old linear systems come across unexpected positive feedback loops, as a PA microphone sometimes bursts unpleasant noises. A swarm model, however, well manages and enhances order. By gradually expanding a new structure beyond the boundaries of its initial state, a swarm can set up its own scaffolding to build more complex structures. Spontaneous order helps create more order. Life breeds more life. Wealth generates more wealth. Information creates more information. All of these break the original cradle, yet with an infinite path lying ahead.
Future of Evolution
In the second half of the book, Kevin Kelly elaborates on The Nine Laws of God through scrutiny of the frontiers of computer science and the edges of biological research. Here are some inspiring concepts summarized for you:
(A) Revolutionary future: pilot breakthroughs, upgrading by chunking, and explosive growth
First, the operating system running on the command line interface (CLI) benefits from the graphic user interface (GUI) of windows. Then, simplified client/server structure, multi-task function, as well as other innovative concepts ignite effective marketization. The automated database is experiencing skyrocketing growth propped by novel concepts and spurred by demand for shared databases by concurrent users across applications. The newly emerged sharing economy, standing the test of drastic changes, has witnessed rampant equipment installation in frontier cities. All of these epitomize technical and economic leaps in recent decades.
(B) Individual evolution: symbiosis, directed mutations and self-adaptation
Major informational swaps permit convergence of distinct evolutions. Nonrandom mutations pop up towards the same end. Individuals rectify mistakes and evolve better among constant feedback. Referring to cases from the nature and Internet, Kelly intends to reveal the inherent mechanism of individual evolution.
(C) Key impetus: the Internet
The Internet is an out-of-control being, due to which the world is decentralizing. Kelly believes in a future where everything is connected, compelled by a heavy blow from the nonlinear network that reshapes social hierarchy.
The fact that everyone is somehow committed online has shifted how the current society unfolds itself with existing unsolved concerns, such as human relations, privacy threats, technical outsiders, etc. We believe that online hazards shall be rid of. Meanwhile, we speak for the exploration, development, and application of innovative online products which bring more convenience and welfare.
(D) Essential momentum: natural enemies
The Catfish Effect best illustrates this view, where a strong competitor can cause the weak to better themselves. Just as an African deer grows stronger by the chase of a cougar, the driving force for an industry lies in powerful rivals.
Similarly, the introduction of Tesla into China changes the overall landscape of new energy vehicles in the country. Tesla here is the catfish or even the shark.
New Organism
Thousands of years of the informational revolution have walked past the new era of microcomputers and the Internet Year One, is expecting an end to the Moore’s Law, and will carry forward for years to come. The only path leading to “out of control” and “biological equipment” is ubiquitous evolution. Whether it’s for political democracy, creatures, code programs, or virtual VR games, evolution happens all along. It creates order out of disorder through self-generation, self-support, and self-transformation, just like a nonstop fuel engine of a train. A new organism formed by humans and robots will follow the tide while reserving its unique traits. This new life form is encouraged to learn to get along, share, and coexist with its peers.
These insights provided by Out of Control greatly strike me. I cannot help but paint a vivid picture of a novel IT organism, based on the “hive mind” theory, bolstered by revolutionary architecture, development methods, deployment manners, etc.
