Mass
= "Mass is the forced convergence of many people, products, institutions, and behaviors into a common middle through standardized systems of production, distribution, and coordination." [1]
Status
John Robb:
"Over the past decade, mass media’s power has evaporated. Besieged by rapid technological shifts that have packetized content and fragmented audiences, its audience has dwindled to a shrinking pool of aging boomers, with most of its remaining audience over 55.
Packetized media didn’t just shrink mass media’s audience by changing delivery patterns; it also removed the possibility of shared narratives, facts, and reality.
The collapse of mass that we saw in media is spreading.
..
In every domain, mass is either already dead, as in media, society, and politics, or dying, as in markets and war, under the inexorable pressure of a technological phase shift beyond incremental improvement to a whole new platform.
For example, by primary technological driver:
- Networks shattered the stability of mass in media, society, and politics.
- AI is shattering mass in markets.
- Robotics (or embodied AI) is shattering mass in warfare."
(https://johnrobb.substack.com/p/the-end-of-mass?)
Characteristics
John Robb:
"Mass is the organizing principle of the entire modern societal stack, an industrial-era design assumption for the twentieth-century societal operating system. We use mass in everything from;
Markets to — the mass market, consumerism, interchangeable labor, job market, global brands
Society to — shared values, social norms, common culture, one social fabric, collective identity —
Politics to — unified electorate, big parties, the popular vote = legitimacy, majority rule, national consensus, polling —
War — mass conscription, industrial total war, superpowers, center of gravity/moral warfare.
- Mass; many units compressed into common form.
- Scale; many units produced in volume.
- Network; a connection between many units without regard to commonality.
(https://johnrobb.substack.com/p/the-end-of-mass?)
Discussion
What Comes Next : the Era of Time
" In a society organized by time, everything flows to the people moving the fastest. " >
John Robb:
"Time, as an organizing principle, forces society to stratify based on the productivity and leverage that networks, AI, and robotics provide individuals.
In a society organized by time, all the benefits of society flow to the fastest.
Speed depends on the leverage AI, robotics, and networks provide.
If you own millions of artificial workers, you win.
If your thinking is heavily augmented (in the way software engineers are using AI today to become 10x more productive), you win."