A Crowd of One: The Future of Individual Identity

by John Henry Clippinger

Great leaps forward in scientific understanding have, throughout history, engendered similar leaps forward in how we understand ourselves. Now, the new hybrid disciplines of evolutionary biology and social physics are making the next leap possible—and fundamentally altering our notions of individual identity. If identity is a fact not derived from within the individual, but conferred on an individual by a group, or network, a host of assumptions about how governments work, how conflicts arise and are resolved, and how societies can be coaxed toward good are overturned. John Clippinger brilliantly illuminates how the Enlightenment itself—the high point of individual assertiveness—was a product not just of a few moments of individual inspiration and creativity, but rather of a societal shift that allowed innovation and creativity to flourish. Michelangelo owes quite as much to the circumstances of the Renaissance as the Renaissance does to the work of Michelangelo. Now, the digitalization of society, which affects all of us already, allows new insight into these What does it require for societies, organizations and individuals, to thrive? Who decides who you are? How can happiness be shared and spread? Who can you trust?

Genres: Sociology, Psychology, Nonfiction

240 pages, Hardcover

First published April 9, 2007

About the author

John Henry Clippinger III is a researcher, entrepreneur, and activist around decentralized, autonomous, self-organizing systems with a focus on generative governance and finance for climate change and social equity.

Reviews

[Tucker · Rating 4 out of 5]

There's a lot of big ideas in this book. Surely they are synthesized in the author's mind since he chose to put them all in the same book, though it may not be clear to the reader exactly how everything ties together at the edges, so your mileage may vary. It's like a series of academic snapshots of the world. Topics include: evolution, the immune system, linguistics, the invention of money, national origin myths, leadership qualities, altruism, and how the Internet is changing everything (circa 2007 when this book was published). One of the major themes is that individual identity isn't separable from group ties. The "envelope" seems to be how politicians, diplomats, and military leaders can approach military/security problems in a measured, thoughtful way apart from us shooting them (the author previously worked for the U.S. Department of Defense), but this theme is more like a transparent envelope and you have to tilt it in the light to catch it.

[Alex Priest]

Don't bother.

[Michael Huang · Rating 2 out of 5]

There are many individual gem stones in this book. The author discussed a lot of relatively new social science findings. Depending on how well read you are about these new findings, some may strike you as (very) old news. (For instance that it's no longer the orthodox to treat human beings as rational, selfish individuals. Holding elections in Afghanistan is perhaps not really seeding democracy as much as applying a cosmetic overlay on a feudal system. ) But overall, you can still pick up a lot of interesting tidbits (e.g., Scottish enlightenment happened in a short 75 years). But the whole book lacks a cohesive theme or it's not getting through to me. Every chapter reads like a relatively well-written, but autonomous magazine column. But even then, sometimes the eureka revelations are not as robust as it first appears. For instance, at one point the author says we should not be recommending developing societies to ape Western institutions. But rather consider the importance of creating conditions to allow their own viable institutions. This really sounded like wisdom first. But when you do sit down and think of it, the reality is not like today's Western governments are actively trying to impose their institutions in developing world.

The author said that "the book has been a long time in the making" (That's literally the first sentence of the book.) It felt like he finally sat down to assemble lots of random thoughts into twelves chapters. It wasn't clear whether the book was describing a current or impending problem, proposing a solution to said problem, or given alternative interpretation to observed phenomena. It's a little bit of each. For instance, a lot of part of the book explained terrorism, but the last chapter explains how digital institutions can work (exhibit 1: eBay manage to build digital trust). Even the meaning of the supposedly revelational title term "A crowd of one" is unclear to me. (I get that we all have individual identity as well as group identity. And perhaps the digital age is greatly amplifying the individual identity. My question is still, so?)

Reading the praiser's review didn't really help much. One reviewer literally said:

"*As jumbled as it is*, this is a devilishly good and interesting book. Because of the rather haphazard organization, one has to read it twice, first from front to back and then in reverse to get the full impact of the substance and the author's main points"

Any book that requires the reader to go twice (once in reverse) only to understand is just not a well made product. Maybe one day, I'll follow the advice and read backwards. But until then, this has been demoted to 2 stars.

[Ronald · Rating 4 out of 5]

I connected with this book because it reflected many of the ideas and sensations that I developed during my time working on a thesis in the Australian Department of Defence. It was interesting to read the author's interpretations of the lessons to be learned from the world of networked terrorism.

[Jemain]

Its a great read. We ask if leaders are born or made. It contains food for thought.