Recently, writer Chris Hayes (@chrislhayes) posed the following question on Twitter: “What innovation over the past few years has had the greatest net impact on society?”
Hayes admits that the question is difficult to answer. Unfortunately, many innovations have as many negative consequences as they positive. The best responses? Mobile check deposits and the back-up camera in cars. Those are definitely innovations of convenience, but is the goal of innovation to simply make life easier?
Even Nate Silver chimed in with ride-sharing apps, something that has been a benefit to many, though also has led to countless lawsuits, rape allegations and suicides. And, again, it seems to be an innovation of convenience.
Instead, the answer probably lies in an axiom my BC Calculus teacher, Mrs. McDaniels, shared with me years ago.
As we, as a class, were lamenting graphing single-variable calculus equations, a student asked why we couldn’t just put the equations into our calculators and let them do all the work.
Her response has always stuck with me: “Technology should help us do more, not make life easier.”
In lieu of that aphorism, my suggestion is massive, online collaboration. Sure, collaboration has been around forever, even online for years. But never to the degree – and with the same power – that it is now.
Massive, online collaboration has the power to solve world-level crises as well as mundane problems. It can help a person in need and evoke social change. We, as a group, can build an entire world in a day, then explore that world in an immersive learning environment.
Heck, massive, online collaboration is even used to answer Hayes’s original question.
Massive, online collaboration has been around for a decade or so. The New York Times highlighted the innovation in the context of solving unsolvable mathematical theorems back in 2009. Wikipedia has been around even longer.
If you’re looking for a downside and you happen to still have your MySpace account, you can blame massive, online collaboration for the downfall of the social media giant. In 2007, just as MySpace was reaching its pinnacle, Facebook opened “the era of crowdware,” ending MySpace’s brief reign atop the social media world. The benefit? Anyone could contribute his or her ideas and creations for world consumption, not just developers in Silicon Valley. (Although one could easily argue Farmville is a mark against the idea of massive, online collaboration.)
Of course, there are negatives. As a teacher, I’m very aware of the role online bullying plays in the lives of many of my students.
The question, though, is net impact, and massive, online collaboration has undoubtedly changed the lives of millions around the world for the better, not just in developed countries.
Let me be clear, too, that I’m not advocating for social media. Social media is one means by which massive, online collaboration works. But it’s merely a tool. Massive, online collaboration, however, is one positive way to use that tool.
In an age where technology has the ability to empower us, it seems logical that our best innovation should do just that.
What do you think?