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1-Page Summary of The Seventh Sense
Overview
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Complex systems such as the Internet are incredibly intricate, especially considering that they’re made up of millions of interconnected devices. Since these systems have undoubtedly improved our lives, we need to be careful about how we use them.
To make the most of complex networks, we need to keep up with technological advances. We can’t let people use these networks against us like terrorists using the Internet to spread their message or criminals hacking into our data. Instead, we must constantly update our institutions and infrastructure so that they’re safe from disruption by hackers and other bad actors.
These key points explain the complexity of our current society and how we can survive in it. It also explains why you shouldn’t rely on artificial intelligence; why gatekeepers are important to your success; and why we need a new sense to make us better humans.
Big Idea #1: New technology replaces the old, and advancements in science mean that things are always changing.
In the nineteenth century, during the industrial revolution, philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche foresaw that humans would need a sixth sense to keep up with technological change.
Today, we need to develop a new sense of understanding how things are interconnected. We can do that by recognizing the fact that everything is connected. Take for example the first iPod in 2001. It not only changed how people listen to music but also altered the music industry as a whole. After it was released, people stopped using Discmans and CD shops began closing while MP3 sales flourished. This led to streaming services such as Spotify becoming more popular than ever before. In short, this shows us that old analog networks have been replaced by digital ones over time.
Technology is constantly changing, and the way we use it changes as well. Old ways of using technology are replaced by new ones, just like how English is used all over the world to communicate ideas in a simple manner.
It’s impossible to imagine the world where people would switch languages. However, it will happen one day because that’s how network power works. The technology needed for this is already available today. One day, you’ll be able to get into a taxi in Madrid and say “good morning” and your driver will hear “buenos días.” It’ll come a time when translation algorithms are more important than being able to speak and understand English.
Big Idea #2: Institutions are still using outdated systems.
If we go back to the beginning of the Internet, would you have thought that it would one day be used by terrorists to indoctrinate children? Networks are more far-reaching than anyone could have predicted.
Institutions are having trouble keeping up with the growth of social networks. Terrorists have been able to grow in strength faster than institutions can keep track of them, as shown by a Pentagon analysis team’s survey of deleted phone calls and SMS messages after 9/11.
In 2003, US troops learned that a terrorist in Baghdad had created a new way to make bombs. They also found out that the same bomb killed an official in Afghanistan ten days later. The terrorists’ communication was more advanced than the US troops’.
Even terrorists who are new to the field of terrorism manage to elude government surveillance. The Pentagon’s task force, known as the Joint Improvised Explosive Device Defeat Organization (JIEDDO), found that these terrorists tend to visit websites containing instructions on how to make bombs. Other terrorists would also provide real-time advice in encrypted chat rooms which the U.S. government was unable to gain access into because it is very slow and old fashioned compared with today’s technology savvy terrorist organizations such as ISIS or al Qaeda.
