Albert-László Barabási (Collective Intelligence)

Today's guest is physicist Laszlo Barabasi.

Laszlo is a professor of network science and physics at Northeastern University.

He has pioneered the study of complex networks, discovering that most systems are not randomly structured but contain highly connected hubs.

He has authored popular books such as Linked: The New Science of Networks, Bursts: The Hidden Pattern Behind Everything We Do, and most recently, The Science of Science.

Tom, Barabasi's coming now, I think, third in our series of thinkers and scholars whose work pertains to a topic we're interested in broadly at the foundation, intelligence.

So before diving into his specific work, what perspective on intelligence were you looking to find when speaking with Laszlo?

Usually, I think our first thought when we think about intelligence is the intelligence of an individual, whether a human or, say, animal intelligence, of how smart is that parrot or my dog.

Mm-hmm.

But intelligence, too, operates at a higher level.

Collections of people working together, colonies of ants or bats or bees.

There is a level of behavior and performance and achievement that only comes in that highly coordinated environment in which these achievements are possible, and that a certain kind of intelligence arises.

So talking to Barabasi was my goal because he spends his time looking at the larger structures-

Mm-hmm

... and how different agents fit together, whatever those agents are, and then seeing what comes of it, how the whole is bigger than the sums of its parts.

Fascinating.

Let's turn to the episode.

Today's guest is physicist Laszlo Barabasi.

Laszlo is a professor of network science and physics at Northeastern University.

He has pioneered the study of complex networks, discovering that most systems are not randomly structured but contain highly connected hubs.

He has authored popular books such as Linked: The New Science of Networks, Bursts: The Hidden Pattern Behind Everything We Do, and most recently, The Science of Science.

Tom, Barabasi's coming now, I think, third in our series of thinkers and scholars whose work pertains to a topic we're interested in broadly at the foundation, intelligence.

So before diving into his specific work, what perspective on intelligence were you looking to find when speaking with Laszlo?

Usually, I think our first thought when we think about intelligence is the intelligence of an individual, whether a human or, say, animal intelligence, of how smart is that parrot or my dog.

Mm-hmm.

But intelligence, too, operates at a higher level.

Collections of people working together, colonies of ants or bats or bees.

There is a level of behavior and performance and achievement that only comes in that highly coordinated environment in which these achievements are possible, and that a certain kind of intelligence arises.

So talking to Barabasi was my goal because he spends his time looking at the larger structures-

Mm-hmm

... and how different agents fit together, whatever those agents are, and then seeing what comes of it, how the whole is bigger than the sums of its parts.

Fascinating.

Let's turn to the episode.