Pattern Matters Instead of People ——《The Social Atom》

Mark Buchanan，身为理论物理学家，自然而然，看万事万物，都难脱物理法则的框架。他以理科的思维，对人文学科的研究方法与成果提出反思与质疑，他提倡 研究人类社会学，不该再因循守旧得以个人为单位，而应该从混沌乱象中思考并辨析出群体的决策、行为模式。无它，因为人类社会既由单位微粒——人组成，也该 和自然物质中的微粒一样遵循某种物理法则。他认为群体行为模式的形成与个体的自由意志性格特点没有太大的关系，做为社会网络中的一个节点，人并不能完全独 立自主，我行我素，个人的选择势必要受到人与人之间互动的影响和限制，同时，具备适应与模仿两种天赋本能的个人的选择结果又会增强群体行为模式，进一步扩 大它的影响和能量。总之，他以为，单个微粒的运动可以是杂乱无序的，但整体层面而言，系统是有模式可循的。这就象社会学领域的一场“量子革命”，方兴未 艾，Social Physics, 正是这场革命的骨干力量。

书中，他颇引用了一些有趣的实验，为一些屡见不鲜的社会现象提出迥异以往 的解释，值得沉吟。譬如：

How fads are created? - Mark Granovetter "Threshold" Theory:

• In any specific situation, we all have some threshold, A person's threshold reflects the points where the perceived benefits to an individal of doing the things in question exceed the perceived cost.
• Person's threshold vary among the group.
• The balance between benefits and costs often depends not only on our own individual preferences, but on what other people are doing and how many of them are doing it.

What cause racial segregation?
Thomas Schelling's segregation game shows that racial segregation is not necessarily caused by racism. Just because people prefer to avoid being part of an extreme minority.

Why ethnic division exist?
Axelrod and Hammond's color game shows two remarkable things:

1. when people interact in a primitive setting, with only a few possible ways to try to get on in the interactions with their neighbors, prejudice has an advantage.
2. the rise of the ethnocentric attitude and its spread through a population results in a more cooperative world.

Ethnic prejudice will happen only if people are somehow forced to make decisions only on the basis of crude and superficial labels.
Ethnic division is a kind of universal tendency, unless other prevailing forces keep it under control.
Ethinc cleansing happens because:

• lack of higher social mechanisms
• systematic organization of hatreds by strong leader.

Why strong reciprocity can evolve?
Selection between individuals should work against strong reciprocity, but selection between groups should work for it. If competition between groups is important enough, then strong reciprocity should naturally evolve.

Why Matthew Effect can happen?
The wealth inequality simply follow the power law pattern.

What he concluded is: Behind the complexity, behind the scenes of the outer story, simple mathematical laws emerge that reflect the workings of some orderly process.

Well, think pattern, not people. That is it.