@Twitters boss, @jack (>2M followers) shared some wisdom on jan 19th, 2015. I would specially focus on
The world needs a better consciousness then its present “leadership”, as was recently assembled in the World Economic Forum in Davos. However, as much as I appreciate Twitter, in its present state it would do far worse. In fact it would be a disaster. It is in complete agreement with Daniel Dennett and others, that a consciousness consists of circulating memes (phrases, parts of phrases). This is, albeit with some restrictions, what happens in Twitter. However the second part is far more difficult: the selection of the most appropriate phrase to utter in a certain situation in reality. This selection-facility has to be acquired. For that, it’s essential that experience is stored in a non-arbitrary way. In Twitter hashtags and retweets are the selection. If the world would act upon it, it would result in drunk driving.
I think it’s allowed to indulge in some small talk every now and then, even for the world-consciousness. But a consciousness is primarily there to do some steering, to make decisions that matter. Then a mechanism is needed whereby what’s relevant for this task is selected and memorized. Far more selection and accumulation in the long run is necessary. Only when twitter somehow can fuse with Wikipedia something could start happening.
And then there is the question of power. If nobody acts on the wise decisions of the global consciousness it might well go mad.
The complete session of @jack 20150129:
https://twitter.com/twitter/timelines/560863194122424320
1/Is this thing on?
2/I have some things I’d like to say. To start…the tweetstorm!
3/The folks using Twitter daily created the @username, the #hashtag, and the retweet, all within the constraint of 140 characters.
4/The @, #, and RT have become cultural movements and have influenced every social and communications service since. Even offline.
5/The “tweetstorm” and #/tweet syntax is a (clever) way around the 140 character constraint. Once again created by people using the service!
6/I think it beautifully showcases Twitter’s real strength: simple and engaging live conversation. From anywhere about anything!
7/A service that enables the people using it to create new cultural practices is a service that is evergreen. Twitter is that service.
8/And now, the team at Twitter. The team today is excellent in every way and is having a tangible positive impact on our pace and execution.
9/We saw that Tuesday with a string of amazing launches that are making Twitter even better: https://blog.twitter.com/2015/now-on-twitter-group-direct-messages-and-mobile-video-capture …
10/As for @dickc, our cofounder @ev rightly pointed out there isn’t a single person who has been thinking longer about Twitter than @dickc.
11/@dickc was one of our first angel investors, our advisor, our COO, the creator of our revenue engine, and our CEO who assembled the team.
12/And finally, the company. I don’t know of many companies that also represent a movement. Twitter does.
13/Twitter has more global awareness than most century old companies, and yet the brand actually stands for something.
14/The Twitter bird has come to stand for empowerment and a positive force in civil society.
15/The company constantly shows this spirit in action, especially in policy. And it’s built a great business to enable that to flourish!
16/I think Twitter is the closest thing we have to a global consciousness. And I believe the world needs that right now.
17/That’s all. Have a great day!
