Where do we go from here? Cognitive surplus,and changing the world

One of the most intriguing TED talks I watched some time ago was about cognitive surplus. It really changed how I view many things. When reflecting on all what I learned in this class, it came to my mind and I looked it up to find out that it was no other than Shirky himself who wrote Here Comes Everybody.

http://www.ted.com/talks/clay_shirky_how_cognitive_surplus_will_change_the_world.html

The concept is simple yet can truly change the world and make it a better place for everyone. I recall the number of cognitive surplus hours estimated to be around 1 trillion or so per year. If we all somehow aggregated this and mobilized it to serve mutually beneficial projects for all of humanity, we will all be better off, everyone of us. This class profoundly changed my views on many things, but this idea stands out for me. I think that most religions, philosophies, political and social movements that I can think of had such component in their agenda. Because they knew its intrinsic power. The only difference is that many times it was left in the abstract with no tangible way of taking action. But know we have it, technology. In addition to my idealistic dreaming of solving the UN Millennium’s goals which might be assisted by aggregating both the gaps in the current implementations and potential customized solution, there are more practical applications.

A concept I came across in one of my classes and I think ties well to this is “Games with a purpose.”

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Game_with_a_purpose

I think it's just fascinating on many levels. It’s aggregating usually “wasted” time and channeling it to solve problems that technology can't,leaving the burden on humans. One of the better known examples is Foldit http://fold.it/portal/ In which we play to solve puzzles about how proteins came to take their current shapes. This has numerous potential medical and therapeutic applications due to understanding the protein’s structure.

Another similar one is Phylo in which you play to try and decode genetic diseases.

This is all while we are technically still playing a game which makes it a great concept in my opinion.

In a world where recourses are getting scarcer and our problems larger and more complex, leveraging cheap technology to aggregate the cognitive surplus of the world will soon be inevitable. It can help us with medical access for sub-Saharan African countries who have more native doctors in Chicago than in their countries. It can help us in solvingn poverty and hunger. Combining micro finance with online networks was such a great way, but much more is needed. If I exagurate enough, the solution to all our problems are within our hands, we just need to find which exact hands.

In a truly globalized, connected and small world, aggregating knwoeldge has never been easier nor more important. I'll make sure to carry this knowledge along with all other ideas I took from this class to make myself a better person, and then maybe do something more...