Rebirth of the Wild Age

A few days before New Year's Day, Song Weiyang received three reporters at home.

One is Hu Song, a writer for Outlook Weekly, the other is Pang Anming, a photojournalist for Outlook Weekly, and the other is Liu Ziran, a senior sister who graduated from Fudan University.

Hello, Hu Ji! Song Weiyang shook hands proactively.

Hello, Mr. Song! Hu Song said with a smile.

Song Weiyang said again: Hello, Pang Ji!

Mr. Song, hello! Pang Anming was fiddling with his camera when he heard the greeting, and quickly stepped forward to shake hands with Song Weiyang. In the past, when he interviewed various celebrities and dignitaries, he would honestly stand by and take pictures, and no interviewee took the initiative to shake hands with him.

In the end, Song Weiyang joked with Liu Ziran: Senior sister, you are not bad, you have become a reporter from Xinhua News Agency.

Liu Ziran said with a smile: There are many reporters from Xinhua News Agency. I am just a reporter from Shenghai Branch.

Lookout is a weekly magazine under the Xinhua News Agency. This interview was conducted by Liu Ziran. By the way, she also came over to listen and ask a few words, and then wrote a manuscript and published it in the local newspaper. Song Weiyang's interviews are very difficult to make an appointment, even Liu Ziran, who is a senior sister, can't make an appointment.

Hu Song got straight to the point and said: Mr. Song, Lookout has many content sections. This interview with you will be placed in the People section. This section is dedicated to the protagonists or key figures in major news events at home and abroad, as well as Reports on influential people with high news value in China and international affairs. The theme of this interview revolves around the concept of Internet web2.0. Please take a look at the interview draft. If there is any inconvenience to answer, or you We can avoid talking about issues that are considered sensitive.”

Song Weiyang took over the interview draft and browsed through it, then nodded and said, No problem.

Okay, let's start now? Hu Song asked.

Song Weiyang smiled and said, Okay, take it easy.

Hu Song didn't directly ask a formal question, but said in a familiar way: Recently, you have received a lot of interview invitations, right?

Song Weiyang smiled helplessly: Not only interview invitations, but also various speech invitations. The daily invitations are in double digits. Tsinghua University and Peking University also invited me to give a speech a few days ago, but I pushed them all. I have to agree to that one. How can I have so much free time? I originally turned down the invitation from Fudan University, but the old principal called me directly, so I couldn’t turn it down. After this interview with you, I I’m going to Fudan in the afternoon, if I knew it earlier, I wouldn’t be in the limelight.”

Speaking of being in the limelight, there are many reports about you in the United States, Hu Song asked, Have the American media contacted you?

Song Weiyang said: Yes, the Time and People weekly magazines in the United States have sent emails, wanting to do an exclusive interview with me. Even gossip magazines such as U.S. Weekly also join in the fun, good celebrity gossip If you don’t report it, why come here to provoke me?”

An exclusive interview with Time Magazine? Hu Song asked with great interest, Did you agree?

Song Weiyang shook his head and said, I refuse.

Hu Song finally showed a surprised expression: It is an honor for many people to be featured in Time magazine. Why did you refuse?

Because the recent reports by the American media make me feel uncomfortable, Song Weiyang said, There is an invisible big hand manipulating American public opinion and Nasdaq, and I have become a tool held by this big hand. I don't want to be I don't want to be used by others, and I don't want to have such a false name, the American media is killing me.

Hu Song smiled and said, Are you always so rational?

Song Weiyang said: It's rare for me to be irrational.

Hu Song casually wrote a few words in the shorthand, sat up straight and said, Let's get down to business, how did you come up with the concept of web2.0?

Song Weiyang asked back: Have you heard of Kevin Kelly?

Hu Song thought for a while: The founding editor-in-chief of the American Wired magazine?

Yes, that's him, Song Weiyang nodded, Kevin Kelly published Out of Control in 1994. When Hollywood was filming The Matrix, the director asked all crew members, including the actors, to Everyone must see Out of Control at least once.

Hu Song asked: What is the connection between Out of Control and web2.0?

Song Weiyang said: The book Out of Control is not just an Internet work, it covers society, economy, culture, history and many other aspects. In the book, Kevin Kelly connected life and man-made objects, he said Life forms are becoming more and more stylized, and man-made objects continue to show life characteristics. He calls life forms and man-made objects with the characteristics of life forms super life forms. The connections are all through the Internet, and I think the inspiration for The Matrix probably comes from this book.

Knowing that Song Weiyang hadn't finished speaking, Hu Song nodded in agreement with a smile: In 1994, this was a very advanced concept.

It's very advanced now, Song Weiyang said with a smile, Kevin Kelly said that the connection between heavenly creations and man-made objects will become closer and closer, and he mentioned the bee colony effect when explaining this connection. No A bee and ant control the colony, but an invisible hand, a hand that springs from a multitude of dull members, controls the whole colony. Its magic is that quantitative changes cause qualitative changes, from the collective of a single onion To transition to a swarm collective, as long as the number of bugs is increased, a large number of bugs gather together so that they can communicate with each other. At a certain stage, when the complexity reaches a certain level, clusters will emerge from the bugs, and the inherent properties of the bugs are Contains cluster properties. Note that the key words of these contents are 'emergence' and 'cluster'!

This topic is obviously a bit brain-intensive. Hu Song has never watched Out of Control before, and he asked subconsciously: So, web2.0 is a product of the bee colony effect?

Song Weiyang nodded and said: Yes, an individual in society is equivalent to an ant or a bee. Kevin Kelly said that if you use a cyclotron and an X-ray machine to detect a bee, you will never be able to find the hive. The same is true for people. If you observe a person alone, whether he is smart or ignorant, or knowledgeable or ignorant, he is just a single person. However, the Internet can connect countless people. In the network, people can communicate and communicate with each other. Inspiration and co-creation will form clusters. And when the power of clusters is integrated, the characteristics of emergence will appear. So I think that the concept of web2.0 is actually the hive effect on the Internet. The network is a hive, and netizens It's bees.

Hu Song asked: Is this all Kevin Kelly's theory?

Song Weiyang said: It can be regarded as. Kevin Kelly said in the book that as the number of members increases, the possible interactions between two or more members increase exponentially. When the connection degree is high and the number of members is large At that time, the dynamic characteristics of group behavior were produced. The so-called quantitative change leads to qualitative change. Now p2p technology is becoming more and more mature, which is enough to support the bee colony effect of the Internet. The increase of each Internet user makes the development of Internet content grow exponentially. The achievements of the Internet in the next year may be equal to the achievements of the past ten years, which is a kind of emergence feature. So I say that the new era of the Internet is coming, and the prosperity of the web2.0 era will far exceed that of web1.0 era.

Hu Song said: Can you explain the characteristics of web2.0 in more detail?

I have already mentioned the basic characteristics at the Internet Conference, Song Weiyang said, Let me repeat Kevin Kelly's description in Out of Control. He believes that the cluster system has the following benefits: First, adaptability, cluster The system can continue to survive or adapt to new incentive signals when some components fail; second, evolvability, the experience and evolution of individuals in the cluster can be passed from one individual to another, and ultimately lead to group evolution ;Third, infinity, in the cluster system, positive feedback can lead to increasing order, spontaneous order can create more order, information can breed more information, and life can reproduce more life; fourth, novelty...

Hu Song asked: Does the cluster system have any shortcomings?

Song Weiyang said: Yes, let's use the Internet as an example. It is not optimal. In the past, the website controlled the network. In the web2.0 era, everyone creates the network. In the absence of central brain control, the distribution of network resources is chaotic. Redundant content has increased a lot, and repeated efforts of netizens and programmers can be seen everywhere. There is also uncontrollability. In the era of web2.0, no one is an authority, everyone is a hero, and capital and programmers cannot control the direction of development. Follow the development trend of the Internet. There is also non-immediacy...

Hu Song said: So Kevin Kelly predicted the arrival of the web2.0 era?

It can be said to be yes, or it can be said to be no, Song Weiyang said, Kevin Kelly's ideological discussion belongs to the basic theory of web2.0, which is both clear and vague. It can be said that Kevin Kelly has seen the general direction, but the development of details will be beyond his imagination. But Kevin Kelly has a very subtle saying, he said that the group system belongs to the wisdom of the mob, which sums up In the web2.0 era, everyone is ordinary, but everyone is a hero.

Hu Song said: Do you like reading very much? It seems that the book Out of Control has not been published in China.

I read the original English version, Song Weiyang said, Kevin Kelly has a great influence in the western computer and network circles. Before he founded Wired magazine, Jobs had already been his loyal reader. 80's.

Hu Song said: Whether it is cluster effect or bee colony effect, this seems to be a sociological theory.

Song Weiyang smiled and said, I majored in sociology in college.

Hu Songdao: Can it be understood that you proposed the concept of web2.0 not based on computer and Internet knowledge, but from your sociological thinking?

You can say that. Song Weiyang said.

Hu Song said: Will web2.0 affect the real society?

Song Weiyang said: I think that web2.0 and real society influence each other. But in the era of web3.0, the Internet and real society will become one and inseparable. It will be difficult to survive in society without using the Internet.

Hu Song laughed: Will you die if you don't surf the Internet?

Song Weiyang said: Death is unlikely, but it must be out of touch with society, just like a hermit monk in Zhongnan Mountain. Humans are group and social animals...

Hu Song soon discovered that he didn't know if he would be out of touch with society if he didn't go online, but his interview today was out of touch with the preset draft. He originally wanted to talk about technology and the Internet with Song Weiyang, but he never returned to the direction of sociology and philosophy. Studies and philosophical issues, and even finally rushed towards the direction of psychology.

Well, when Song Weiyang was studying in Fudan University, psychology was also a compulsory subject.

When the topic got deeper and deeper, Hu Song was almost overwhelmed. He didn't know how to answer the question and could only guide Song Weiyang to continue talking. In the end, the two met in the field of communication, which is Hu Song's original major, and he was finally able to ask more targeted questions.

Back at the magazine, Hu Song wrote at the beginning of the article: Song Weiyang is not a pure businessman, he is more like a philosopher, sociologist, psychologist, and he also has a very deep understanding of communication...