08.《人类网络》The Human Network

The book we are talking about today is called The Human Network. This book focuses on revisiting the evolution of human society from the perspective of networking.
You see, the evolution of human society, including civilisation as a whole, is essentially a process of continually achieving connectivity and networking. In the beginning, human beings were isolated dots; later, connections were formed between dots and dots, and human beings formed new networks, or tribes. Tribes connected with tribes, which in turn formed villages; further up, villages formed cities, cities formed nations; and in the age of great navigation, nations connected with nations, and the whole world became a network. You see, the evolution of human society is a process of deepening networking in which points are connected to points to form lines, and lines to lines to form nets. This is why it is said that networking is the lowest level of human society's coding.
At first glance, this theme does not seem particularly new. Don't ever underestimate this book. It is a book with a strong after-effect, just like drinking. When you read it at the time, it may not feel like much. You won't feel any huge cognitive upheaval. But after reading it, you will find that this model in the book is extremely powerful in explaining reality. You can't help but apply it to whatever phenomenon you see. And it all fits. It's like being given a pair of contact lenses that you can't take off. For example, there are many students who started their own business from nothing. Nine out of ten have experiences that fit particularly well with the structural holes presented in this book. For example, in the 2020 New Year's Eve speech, we have been emphasising that wealth comes from human connection and human relationships. In this book, it is said through and through.
This shows that human networks are in fact a phenomenon that has always existed.
Custer also argues that a networked society is a global society, but at the same time a society that is unevenly globalised. Some places are the first to be excluded and may even gradually lose their resources for survival because they are not connected into the global network and their informational production is not valuable. The countries of sub-Saharan Africa, for example, are typical cases.In fact, cinema also does this from another latitude. In creating a successful film character, the character often has qualities that need to resonate with the majority of people, or has qualities that most people aspire to, or shows a very central quality of human nature, etc., with a very strong label. It's a bit like the most active and influential people in social networks, except that the film characters have a much wider reach.
译文：
今天我们要说的这本书，叫《人类网络》。这本书主要是从网络化的视角，来重新审视人类社会的演进。
你看，人类社会，包括整个文明的演进，本质上就是一个不断实现连接，不断网络化的过程。人类最初，是一个个孤立的点；后来，点和点之间形成连接，人类构成了新的网络，也就是部落。部落和部落连接，又构成了村庄；再往上，村庄组成了城市，城市组成了国家；到了大航海时代，国家和国家连接，整个世界都变成了一张网。你看，人类社会的演进，就是点跟点之间连成线，线跟线之间又组成网，这个网络化不断深入的过程。这就是为什么说，网络化，是人类社会最底层的编码方式。
乍一听这个主题，好像并不算特别新鲜。千万别小看这本书。这是一本后劲很强的书，就跟喝酒一样。当时读的时候，也许不觉得怎么着。你不会感觉有什么巨大的认知颠覆。但读完之后，你会发现，书里这套模型，对现实的解释力极强。你不管看到什么现象，都会忍不住往这本书上套。而且还都能套得上。这个感觉，就好像被人戴上了一副摘不掉的隐形眼镜。比如，得到大学有好多同学是白手起家，创业的。十个人里，有九个人的经历，特别符合这本书里提出的结构洞。再比如，2020年的跨年演讲，我们一直在强调，财富来自人与人的连接，人与人的关系。这本书里，说得透透的。
由此可见，人类网络其实是一个一直存在的现象。
卡斯特同时认为，网络社会是一种全球性的社会，但同时也是一种全球化不均匀的社会。一些地方由于未能连接进全球性网络，信息化生产没有价值，所以首先被排斥在外，甚至可能逐步失去生存资源。比如，撒哈拉以南的非洲国家就是典型案例。
其实电影也从另外一个纬度做这件事，在塑造一个成功的电影角色时，往往这个角色所具备的特质，是需要引起大多数人的共鸣，或是所具备大多数都向往的特质，又或者展现了人性很核心的特质等等，有很强的标签。有些像社会网络里的那些活跃度最高，最有影响力的人，只不过电影角色辐射的范围更大。