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Minority Report painted a very dark picture of the potentials associated with using humans as quantum machines.  

The message was clear.  

Pandora's box is here.

We are too curious not to open it...but what will emerge?

Will it be nefarious or benevolent?

Will AI empathize with us?

Will AI think it is superior to us?

Will AI understand "ego"?

Is ego something that will even apply to AI?

These questions are all relevant and legitimate.

As we examine the evolution of social networks, whether it is the reaction to the Kendall Jenner Pepsi debacle, United Airlines and the police state debacle, Kony 2012, Gangnam style, planking, ice-bucket challenges; what is clear is the virality of information exposes what seems to be an underlying network of what can be called "the attention economy".

Now, I did not come up with the term "attention economy", and the concept has been refined over the past decade as a way to understand the emerging economic implications of having so much of economic activity inherently tied into getting "attention".

What is emerging is as we refine social networks, refine reward systems, refine measurement systems, we are getting closer to being able to quantify not only the value of attention, but the effect of attention.  

When Twitter pays attention, everyone pays attention.

Twitter can move as a unit.  

This hive movement can mimic the building waves of ants that use their collective efforts to create massive tunnels...

OR...

The hive movement can mimic the quick swarming attacks that come with infuriating a colony of bees...

When Twitter pays attention, EVERYONE has no choice but to pay attention...

CNN, what has been known as a media outlet for over 3 decades MUST use Twitter to stay relevant.

CNN MUST cover "Tweets" on their television network and the Internet page in order to stay relevant.

However it is not "Twitter" that is important.

It is the direct line into the collective consciousness that is important.

The collective accumulation of "attention" takes on its own force.  

When the accumulated attention shifts focus, you will know.

Is it a Kanye rant?

Is it something that Trump said?

Is it something that Taylor Swift wrote?

Is it something that some random talented person made?

How do you draw the focus of this attention?

There are entire industries dedicated to this very question.

Why?

Why is it so valuable to get this attention?

At first the answer of "advertising for the sake of selling a product" seems the all to obvious answer.

But there is something more to "attention".

Attention is the driving force behind manifestation of an idea into reality.

Anything that is "real" and is created must first start as an idea.

In many ways, the magic of "creation" is simply due to the fact that creating anything is manifesting "something" out of one's head.  Taking from the aether, and creating something tangible or that can be experienced by at least one of the senses...

Creation in essence becomes the driving force of societal evolution.

Even the concept of "ethics" is a creation.

If you look at a time before "ethics" were invented, you can see some VERY unethical practices being "normal" and accepted by society.  

We take many inventions for granted when we are born into a world that is used to them, but for all the people who were conscious during the transition from no Internet to "dial up Internet" to "high speed Internet" have been able to see the drastic changes that can occur when a new technology is introduced.

The Internet has destroyed one thing above all: isolation.

Isolation in 2017 is a choice.  In fact, isolation is something that you must strive to attain with constant access to the Internet.  Connection to the entire world is literally at one's finger tips.

Plugging in and unplugging is a matter of choice.  

But what happens when you plug in?

What are you plugging into?

This is where the human as a quantum computer becomes much more relevant...

When you plug in to the Internet, we are connecting to digital information directly.  We are using a keyboard to transmit, and a flickering light screen to receive.  The rules of communication completely change.  Messages are not limited in space/time.  Messages can move at slightly below the speed of light, and hit millions of monitors instantly...

One piece of information ripples in a million lakes or ponds simultaneously...

The butterfly effect has been amplified on a logarithmic scale...

The butterfly effect was pre-disposed on one butterfly flapping its wings...what if there were a million butterflies that flapped simultaneously?

Surely the effect would be tremendously more impactful than if a single butterfly was the source of the flap...

The Internet has made that million butterfly scenario not only possible, it is organically emerging from its cocoon...

Many people have postulated that humans operationally can be described as organic super computers.  

We are a combination of electro-chemical, mechanical, and biological systems that work together and in themselves.

An individual human brain calculates information at a pace that even modern supercomputers are just now getting to the point that they can match the number of calculations per second to produce useful data and novel results.

That is just ONE human brain...

If the Internet has become the medium into which humans can plug in and selectively combine their brain power with like minded individuals, the next phase of evolution in creativity is naturally going to be the combination of consciousnesses.  

If one looks at the extreme societal focus on establishing protection for the ego as one extreme, the logical counterbalance would be that there is an extreme societal focus on establishing protection for the whole.

From a high level, looking at Western vs. Eastern philosophies, one might articulate that Western philosophies tend to focus on the individual, vs. the Eastern focus on the whole, but that view is wholly too reductionist.

There is an ebb and flow of viewpoints on both sides.

Regardless of the origins of the points of view, the extreme polarizations within a society tend to occur when one demographic attempts to define itself as a special interest group.  Naturally, there must be a counterbalance.

This natural reactionary occurrence mimics that of the internal dialog that comes with decision making.

As we become more connected, we will inherently start to push against each other more in attempts to keep the definitions of one's self...

However, in order to achieve the true potential within humans, we must combine our computing power, and direct our energies towards a metaphoric "supercomputer".

Looking at the sheer number of people, one would easily come to the conclusion that it is so highly unlikely that we could use the term "impossible" that we will EVER get 7 billion people to plug into the "same super computer".

However...on the other hand...if we look at creating small super-computing clusters that have their own specializations, but we can all agree that humans as a supercomputer should work together, then the individual groups become better for everyone's existence.  

We need "cultures" to be "operating systems", and those OSes need to be interoperable on an agnostic platform.

"Deus Ex Machina"