I have long been thinking that Social Sciences need to become true sciences, subject to experimental verification. The counter argument so far has been that the underlying subjects are too complex and evade modelling. But before we figured out quantum mechanics and its complexities, we had to fumble our way starting with the planetary model of the atom. So social sciences should go back to basics and first try to model simple phenomenons.
Now the emergence of smartphones and explosive growth of sensors is finally providing new means of quantifying social sciences. I have been reading the book “Social Physics: How Good Ideas Spread—The Lessons from a New Science” by Alex Pentland. It’s a difficult read as the style is really poor, but the content is fascinating.
Amazon Link here.
Now think of the implications – if we knew how to really spread memes that drive peaceful cooperation towards economic prosperity in a society, we could make the rebuilding of broken states like Iraq a matter of years instead of generations.
The counterpoint is obviously that the same techniques can be used to make Nazi propaganda seem crude and inefficient. Recent examples, such as Italy under Berlusconi and Hungary under Victor Orban, show that modern democracies do allow for concentration of media and educational powers in the wrong hands. Imagine what they could do with the power of truly impactful social sciences.
So this could be the most dramatic change in human history. We learnt to master the material world around us, we have now the opportunity to master our own individual and group Psyche. We still behave very much like the primates we evolved as, so getting a scientific grip on what drives our motives, behaviors and actions would truly be revolutionary and evolutionary !