Social Physics: How Social Networks Can Make Us Smarter

211 Pages·2015·1.95 MB·English

by  Alex Pentland

Praise for Social Physics
“Social Physics is filled with rich findings about what makes people tick. Using millions of data
points measured over a long period of time in real settings, which Pentland calls ‘living
laboratories,’ the author has monitored human behavior on an unprecedented scale. . . .
Pentland’s research also offers lessons for policy makers and business people. He advances a
new way to protect privacy by creating something of a property right for personal
information. . . . Social Physics is a fascinating look at a new field by one of its principal
geeks.”
—The Economist
“Pentland’s informative and fascinating book . . . certainly advances consideration of the
challenges and possibilities of using big data for organizational and social purposes.”
—William P. Butz, Science
“Among the many recent books about the new science of networks, this one stands out for
the breadth and ingenuity of its data-driven science, and for its commitment to translating
scientific exploration into practical knowledge. Organizational scholars and organizational
leaders alike will find it fascinating and useful. Those who seek to leverage the power of big
data will no doubt find it inspiring as well.”
—Stanford Social Innovation Review
“A fascinating view of the future of social networks that offers intriguing possibilities.”
—Kirkus Reviews
“Understanding, predicting, and influencing human behavior has been the goal of social
scientists (and leaders anywhere) since the beginning of time. Pentland’s Social Physics is a
major contribution to this field. By using communication tracking analysis and occasionally
human sensors along with big data, he and his team are evolving a new discipline with a
unique taxonomy and ontology that brings a higher level of quantification and rigor to a
challenging and inherently complex field. Like Surowiecki’s The Wisdom of Crowds it will
spawn further work and research in a rapidly expanding new body of knowledge.”
—John Abele, cofounder, Boston Scientific
“Read this book and you will look at tomorrow differently. Reality mining is just the first step
on an exciting new journey. Social Physics opens up the imagination to what might now be
measurable and modifiable. It also hints at what may lie beyond Adam Smith’s invisible hand
in helping groups, organizations, and societies reach new levels of meaning creation. This is
not just social analytics. It also offers pragmatic ways forward.”
—John Seely Brown, former chief scientist, Xerox Corporation and director of Xerox Palo Alto
Research Center (PARC)
“From his MIT aerie, eagle-eyed Alex Pentland has seen the future. His wise and stimulating
book teaches us how ideas spring up, flow, and spread. Applying his lessons, we can act
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collectively to solve previously intractable social, economic and political problems. We can
make organizations more productive. We can even have government achieve its proper
purposes, with greater fairness and less cost. As challenges like widening inequality and
runaway climate change seem to exceed our ability to design solutions, Pentland’s data-
driven, reality-based, yet sunny optimism about tomorrow should be eagerly welcomed by
all readers.”
—Reed E. Hundt, former chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, CEO of the
Coalition for Green Capital
“Sandy Pentland lives in the future—and it shows. This book will not only whisk you up to
speed on cutting-edge research at the interface of technology, behavioral science, and the
social world, but it will also give you a good sense of what could be next. Professor Pentland
brilliantly analyzes how new ideas flow and how, with the emergence of the ‘data-driven
society,’ they will increasingly influence every aspect of our lives.”
—Stephen M. Kosslyn, former dean of social science, Harvard University; former director,
Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences, Stanford University; founding dean,
Minerva Schools at KGI
“Many of us have stood above a colony of ants and been astounded at their ability to act and
organize as a social system. Humans are, of course, smarter, independent free-thinking
individuals . . . read this book and think again. With eyesight sharpened by math, modeling,
and the familiarity with a new digital landscape he has in part created, Sandy Pentland and
his team are mapping out a new world, crawling with information, that offers some real
understanding of who we are and who we could be. Welcome to the age of social physics.”
—Peter Gabriel
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PENGUIN BOOKS
SOCIAL PHYSICS
Professor Alex Pentland helped create the MIT Media Lab, directs its Human
Dynamics Lab, and co-leads the World Economic Forum Big Data and Personal
Data initiatives. In 2012, Forbes named Pentland one of the seven most powerful
data scientists in the world.
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ALSO BY ALEX PENTLAND
Honest Signals: How They Shape Our World
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PENGUIN BOOKS
An imprint of Penguin Random House LLC
375 Hudson Street
New York, New York 10014
penguin.com
First published in the United States of America by The Penguin Press, a member of Penguin Group (USA) LLC, 2014
Published with a new preface in Penguin Books 2015
Copyright © 2014, 2015 by Alex Pentland Penguin supports copyright. Copyright fuels creativity, encourages diverse voices, promotes free speech, and
creates a vibrant culture. Thank you for buying an authorized edition of this book and for complying with copyright laws by not reproducing, scanning, or
distributing any part of it in any form without permission. You are supporting writers and allowing Penguin to continue to publish books for every reader.
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Ebook ISBN 9781101625576
THE LIBRARY OF CONGRESS HAS CATALOGED THE HARDCOVER EDITION AS FOLLOWS: Pentland, Alex, 1952– Social physics : how good ideas spread—the
lessons from a new science / Alex Pentland.
pages cm
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 9781594205651 (hc.) ISBN 9780143126331 (pbk.) 1. Inventions—Social aspects. 2. Technology transfer. 3. Science—Social aspects. 4. Social
interaction. I. Title.
T14.5.P45 2014
303.48'3—dc23 2013039929
While the author has made every effort to provide accurate telephone numbers, Internet addresses, and other contact information at the time of
publication, neither the publisher nor the author assumes any responsibility for errors or for changes that occur after publication. Further, the publisher
does not have any control over and does not assume any responsibility for author or third-party Web sites or their content.
Cover design: Adly Elewa Cover illustration: (cogs) Jamie Farrant/iStock Vectors/Getty Images
Version_2
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Contents
Praise for Social Physics
About the Author
Also by Alex Pentland
Title Page
Copyright
Preface: The Origin of the Book
Acknowledgments
1•FROM IDEAS TO ACTIONS
Using Big Data to Understand How Human Societies Evolve
What Is Social Physics?
A Practical Science
Big Data
A Rich Social Science
Plan for the Book
Data-Rich Societies: Promethean Fire
SPECIAL TOPIC: LANGUAGE
PART I
Social Physics
2•EXPLORATION
How Can We Find Good Ideas and Make Good Decisions?
Social Learning
Idea Flow
Idea Flow and Decision Making
Tuning Networks
Exploration
3•IDEA FLOW
The Building Blocks of Collective Intelligence
Habits, Preferences, and Curiosity
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