Abstract
Recent rapid and extensive changes in global patterns of interaction between
individuals resulting from exponential growth in the proportion of populations
participating in social media and other interactive online applications, suggest
a number of possible consequences some of which are concerning for the future of democratic societies and for the stability of global order. We draw
insights from the scientific study of collective phenomena in complex systems.
Changes in interaction patterns often bring about phase transitions – system
rearrangements that are sudden and transformative, through the emergence
and self-amplification of large-scale collective behaviour. We see a parallel
here in the possible effects of changes in human interaction patterns on the
structure of global social systems – including the traditional structures of nation states, and national and cultural identities. Since the growth of new groupings is now largely driven by recommender algorithms in social applications,
whereby people become more and more connected to likeminded others and
have less and less visibility of alternate perspectives, the possible trend we are
concerned about is towards increasing global fragmentation into large numbers of disjoint groupings, accompanied by erosion of national identities, and
weakening of the democratic base. We study these new long-range interactions
and their disruptive potential through both historical analysis and modelling
of the dynamics, and draw conclusions about the risks and their consequences
Original language | English |
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Pages | 132-140 |
Publication status | Published - 2018 |
Event | IX International Conference on Complex Systems 2018 - Cambridge Duration: 1 Jan 2018 → … |
Conference
Conference | IX International Conference on Complex Systems 2018 |
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Period | 1/01/18 → … |