Social Physics for Better Life

On May 1, 2013, the Data for Development (D4D) initiative of Orange, MIT, Louvain University, UN Global Pulse, and the World Economic Forum, gathered 90 research organizations from around the world to report results from their analysis of data describing the mobility and call patterns of the citizens of the entire African country Côte d’Ivoire.

Researchers reported using this data to dramatically improve public health systems, transportation systems, and government transparency. In recent years we have developed a `social physics’ that allows us to analyze the `digital breadcrumbs’ that we all leave behind us as we move through the world (e.g., call records, credit card transactions, and GPS location fixes), and use this new analysis capability to improve government and public systems. As social physics analysis capabilities continue to evolve, scientists are discovering that we can begin to explain many things -- such as financial crashes, revolutions, panics -- that previously appeared to be random events.

[Pentland is the Toshiba Professor of Media Arts and Sciences at MIT and the Director of the Media Lab Entrepreneurship Program]