It may be a cliché, but it’s a timeless truth regardless: who you know matters. The connectedness of actors in a network tells us not just who wields the power in societies and markets, but also how new information spreads through a community and how resilient economic systems are to major shocks. One of the pillars of a complex systems understanding is the network science that reveals how structural differences lead to (or help counter) inequality and why a good idea alone can’t change the world. As human beings, who we are is shaped by those around us — not just our relationships to them but their relationships to one another. And the topology of human networks governs everything from the diffusion of fake news to cascading bank failures to the popularity of social influencers and their habits to the potency of economic interventions. To learn about your place amidst the networks of your life is to awaken to the hidden seams of human culture and the flows of energy that organize our world.
This week’s guest is SFI External Professor Matthew O. Jackson, William D. Eberle Professor of Economics at Stanford University and senior fellow of CIFAR, also a Member of the National Academy of Sciences, and a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. In this episode, we discuss key insights from his book, The Human Network: How Your Social Position Determines Your Power, Beliefs, and Behaviors.
For transcripts, show notes, research links, and more, please visit complexity.simplecast.com.
And note that we’re taking a short break over the winter holiday. COMPLEXITY will be back with new episodes in January 2020.
If you enjoy this show, please help us reach a wider audience by leaving a review at Apple Podcasts, or by telling your friends on social media…after this episode’s discussion, we know you’ll understand how crucial this can be. Thank you for listening!
Visit our website for more information or to support our science and communication efforts.
Join our Facebook discussion group to meet like minds and talk about each episode.
Matthew Jackson’s Stanford Homepage.
WSJ reviews The Human Network.
Jackson’s Coursera MOOCs on Game Theory I, Game Theory II, and Social & Economic Networks.
Podcast Theme Music by Mitch Mignano.
Follow us on social media:
Twitter • YouTube • Facebook • Instagram • LinkedIn
Alien Crash Site Invades Complexity: Tamara van der Does on Sci-Fi Science, with Guest Co-host Caitlin McShea
Mark Moffett on Canopy Biology & The Human Swarm
Cris Moore on Algorithmic Justice & The Physics of Inference
Science in The Time of COVID: Michael Lachmann & Sam Scarpino on Lessons from The Pandemic
Artemy Kolchinsky on "Semantic Information" & The Physics of Meaning
Peter Dodds on Text-Based Timeline Analysis & New Instruments for The Science of Stories
Scott Ortman on Archaeological Synthesis and Settlement Scaling Theory
Helena Miton on Cultural Evolution in Music and Writing Systems
David Wolpert on The No Free Lunch Theorems and Why They Undermine The Scientific Method
Introducing Alien Crash Site, a new SFI Podcast with host Caitlin McShea
Vicky Yang & Henrik Olsson on Political Polling & Polarization: How We Make Decisions & Identities
Carl Bergstrom & Jevin West on Calling Bullshit: The Art of Skepticism in a Data-Driven World
Natalie Grefenstette on Agnostic Biosignature Detection
The Information Theory of Biology & Origins of Life with Sara Imari Walker (Big Biology Podcast Crossover)
Fractal Conflicts & Swing Voters with Eddie Lee
Fighting Hate Speech with AI & Social Science (with Joshua Garland, Mirta Galesic, and Keyan Ghazi-Zahedi)
The Art & Science of Resilience in the Wake of Trauma with Laurence Gonzales
Geoffrey West on Scaling, Open-Ended Growth, and Accelerating Crisis/Innovation Cycles: Transcendence or Collapse? (Part 2)
Scaling Laws & Social Networks in The Time of COVID-19 with Geoffrey West (Part 1)
Better Scientific Modeling for Ecological & Social Justice with David Krakauer (Transmission Series Ep. 7)
Create your
podcast in
minutes
It is Free
DNA Today: A Genetics Podcast
Short Wave
Stuff To Blow Your Mind
Unexplainable
Ground Truths