The Long Tail of Human Potential
Chris Anderson identifies that which fuels the emerging Earth, the Long Tail of human potential that lay untapped until aggregated by the Web: our own idle hands.
In physics, the greatest (theoretical) latent power in the universe is dark energy, waiting only for us to find a way to tap it (and to prove it actually exists; in the meantime it powers fictional superheroes). In people, the equivalent is “spare cycles”–the human potential that isn’t tapped by our jobs, which for most of us is a lot of it.
Spare cycles are the most powerful fuel on the planet. It’s what Web 2.0 is made up of. User generated content? Spare cycles. Open source? Spare cycles. MySpace, YouTube, Facebook, Second Life? Spare cycles. They’re the Soylent Green of the web.
That’s why I love problogging. This job hyperefficiently utilizes spare cycles, letting you run on as many cylinders as your mind will allow.
POSTED IN: Web 2.0
2 opinions for The Long Tail of Human Potential
Emerging Earth
Nov 5, 2007 at 10:21 am
[…] but automated flames would be a hit across all sites with comment systems. If social media taps the Long Tail of human potential, iHate taps the Long Tail of human […]
Gin, Television, and Social Surplus
Apr 30, 2008 at 8:30 am
[…] year, Chris Anderson identified the Long Tail of human potential — our collective free time activities now being connected by the Internet and automatically […]
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