Flocking Birds: Decentralized Decision-making Visualized

Organic, autonomous, collective. Our intuitive and sensemaking abilities have atrophied. How can we make better sense of a complex world if not through collectivity?

One afternoon, I found myself watching Netflix trailers with my 14 year old sister. Ten seconds into the one she suggested to watch, she says, “Thank you, NEXT!”. I didn’t exactly know why, but I was so shocked. It was then that I realized how short her attention span actually is. I wondered if this was common for most kids her age…

Technology is progressing at a pace faster than we can adapt, yet there’s a growing inverse relationship between the gravity of the consequences of our actions and the choices we make versus the quality of the tools through which we make these decisions. I thought to myself, when she grows up, will she have the attention span necessary to sufficiently make sense of the world? Or will she, like most people do today, abdicate her sensemaking authority to an external entity like “thought leaders” and the media? What kinds of people will be making important decisions in the future and what tools will they be equipped with to tackle them?

As attention spans decrease, we try to make information easier to digest because, to no surprise, accessibility and revenue are directly related. As a designer who often deals with presenting information, I feel conflicted because making something easier for people to understand is very different from helping people get better at making sense. When the truth is simplified, the truth is distorted, and what kind of truths are we in fact using to make sense of the world, to think, to act and to decide?

If we want to be able to hold a nuanced point of view, we need to have space for multiple perspectives, but who actually has the capacity? The problem is that most people have given up on this; at the same time, the problems of today are too complex for one person’s perspective to comprehend. Perhaps some form of collective intelligence is the only way to make sufficient sense.