[P2P-F] Why all men are not created equal : Study on Social Hierarchy

Wed Jul 18 03:14:21 CEST 2012

http://www.bbc.com/future/story/20120713-why-all-men-are-not-created-equal/2

"David-Barrett and Dunbar discover a particularly intriguing implication
for our information age. One of the important factors in their model is the
*cost* of communication: how hard it is to exchange information. It’s often
suggested that by lowering the cost of communication, electronic networking
will make it easier for everyone to access information and so will flatten
the social hierarchy. The researchers find that, if there is an initial
inequality in how information is distributed, lowering communication costs
counter-intuitively sustains this steep hierarchy and promotes inequality.
There’s less incentive to spread information around: you can just keep on
looking until you find it.

If we want to avoid this effect of cheaper communication, they say, then
we’ll need ways of compensating for it – for example, by greater social
investment in education to disseminate knowledge. The web won’t do it for
us."

I don't get this last bit -

"There’s less incentive to spread information around: you can just keep on
looking until you find it."

Does the author mean that because information is more abundant that rather
than actively sharing information we expect other people to able to find it
for themselves??

Kevin
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