Mark Pesce responds to Kevin Kelly

I'm sure that's not the only question, actually. The other question - of equal importance - is how do these groups work? What is the internal logic/methodology that leads a group of any sort to cohere sufficiently that it can propose, support and implement ideas? What is the internal function of these idea-excreting machines?

Now that I've posed the question, let me give something of an answer.

The essential quality of the network is that it reproduces things. A network copies. A node (an individual) might originate something, this is then presented to the network; this thing (meme?) is copied throughout the network - why it's copied depends on a whole host of factors, including novelty, utility, ability to reinforce human connectedness, etc. (We're still learning what goes into this list, i.e., what makes something salient.)

Although network copies are essentially perfect copies, the nodes are not themselves perfect receivers or transmitters. The nodes have an inherent tendency to change the copy as it passes through the node. To improve it in some individually meaningful way. This corrupted copy is again presented to the network, which takes it up, and copies it along. Which inspires more corruption, more copies, more corruption, and so on, ad infinitum.

Every node is creative. It's difficult to point to an originator. Or to an end point.
This is what happens when humans are sufficiently well-connected together.