Cognitive Surplus (TED talk #4)

Based off of the TED talk by Clay Shirky: How cognitive surplus will change the world

Clay Shirky gave a mind-blowing TED talk about cognitive surplus and how cooperation with each other and human generosity will end up prevailing in the world to come. Using the first example of Ushahidi, an online map that takes information from multiple sources and combines it into one easy place to get information, Clay Shirky illustrates how one person had a problem (one person not being able to keep up with a mass amount of information), 2 other programmers heard about it and decided to help, and with the technology that is possible today they made a tool that helps society. Using this idea, Clay Shirky introduced the idea of cognitive surplus-the ability of the world to come together and contribute into collective knowledge to do good in the world. What is interesting is that the problem of not being able to keep up seemed complex and almost as if it didn’t have an answer, but then the solution was so simple. Sometimes the answers to our problems are just in front of our face, and all it takes is a little thought and creativity to come up with them. To me, cognitive surplus sounds a lot like Communism, in the sense that everyone is coming together to share their knowledge, but in a good way. After just learning about the Cold War in Social Studies and the fear of Communism, I can’t help but wonder how the world will understand and treat this idea of cognitive surplus. Since the reaction of the people to Communism was not all that great, I wonder if the people will accept it or reject it. This reminds me of what the class discussed with Cory Doctrow and Little Brother: people fear the unknown and change. Implementing cognitive surplus might be a long and slow process.

According to Clay Shirky there are two parts to cognitive surplus: technology and human generosity. It takes technology to solve the problem, and the human generosity to manipulate the technology to solve it. The reason we have not seen a rise in cognitive surplus until now is because technology like todays has not been available until now. People did not want to sit around and be couch potatoes, they wanted to be creative. It is just that up till now people really did not have a way to be creative. Using this idea of cognitive surplus, websites like Wikipedia were created, where someone wants to know some information, and so someone else spends their time giving it to them. This is civic value. Ushahidi and Wikipedia are created not only to help the participants, but to help society as a whole. But if I am doing a research paper, one of the first things the teacher says to the class is, “you cannot use Wikipedia”, or something along the lines of that. I understand that Wikipedia sometimes isn’t always reliable, but if mass amount of information are being pulled together just to help me, or someone else, then I should be able to use them. We are never going to be able to implement Clay Shirky’ s ideas if we cannot use the websites that are being created from his idea. Tools like yahooanswers.com or answers.com are exactly what Clay Shirky is talking about, but high school students are not allowed to use them. Problem? I think so.

The other type of cognitive surplus is called communal value. This is creating something by the participants for each other, just because. LOLcats is a great example of communal value. They are a branch of creativity that is created mainly for laughs, but it is the idea of someone spending their free time to make something for someone else. YouTube allows people to make videos because they want to and share them with others. Even though LOLcats are probably the stupidest act of creativity, they are still an act of creativity. Is it still worth it to do something creative, even though it is stupid? Yes, it is, since at least whoever is making the LOLcats is trying to do something. Whenever you try something, you are bound to get better at it. Like everything else in life, you are bound to get some of the practical and purposeful (Ushahidi), along with some of the just for fun (LOLcats). Ushahidi has a purpose, which is to gather information, while LOLcats is really just to please people and make them laugh. This slides right in with what Dan Pink is trying to say; he believes that there will be a jump from more people wanting practical to more people wanting pleasing. Products’ design is going to have to compete for who can be the best. But what do these purposeful and pleasing items have in common? They both are designed by people because they want to.

Motivation also plays a key role in making cognitive surplus work. Intrinsic motivators are becoming more popular and important. Cognitive surplus works because people want to help others, and they want to be creative. If a boss told someone that they had to write answers to people’s questions on answers.com or make a video for YouTube for entertainment, the work would immediately become a burden and the quality would decrease. Why? Because since it is work, people think that it does not matter as much. The idea is that people take their own free time and help someone else because they want to, and that is what they enjoy doing. As soon as the word work is involved, people feel that they do not owe the person as much, since it is work and they have to do it. Taking the thought of human generosity- that people will help other because they want to-immediately makes the time spent on it longer, the quality better, and the project more meticulously created. People are spending their own free time on this, so why not make it the best?

Clay Shirky utilizes many effective speaking techniques. He never says um or like or any other pause that would take away from the presentation. He uses the screen to illustrate some of his points and to back them up more. Perhaps some of the most effective techniques were his ability to incorporate humor into his presentation. The LOLcats were funny and unexpected, yet they fit in perfectly with his points. He talked about them as if they were something as serious as the weather. He also had many examples and outside sources to back up his points. Using the Ushahidi example, the outside study done on daycare centers, the LOLcats, and quotes from other leaders, he brought more validity to his argument, and made it easier to understand.

What matters? That we utilize the want for us to share and help others to create a better world. Cognitive Surplus.