The Influence Index

摘要

If we lived in some kind of Orwellian dystopia, we could hook a nanobot to everybody's brain and scientifically measure just how much influence each human being has on every other. Whom do we trust? Whom do we fear? Whose ideas shape our view of the world-whether or not we even realize it?rnFortunately, that's pure science fiction. But it is becoming easier to quantify certain kinds of influence. Social-networking sites such as Face-book and Twitter, for instance, can provide some basic information about the breadth of a person's brand. The measures are far from perfect: they tend to reward the young rather than the old, artists and entertainers rather than scientists and thinkers.