On this episode of The Federalist Radio Hour, Neil Chilson, a senior research fellow for technology and innovation at the Charles Koch Institute, joins Culture Editor Emily Jashinsky to discuss his book “Getting Out Of Control: Emergent Leadership in a Complex World.”
“When you can pick up your phone and be exposed to millions of ideas that are outside your previous sphere of experience, that can really feel like things are out of control and I think the natural instinct is for us to grasp, to regain control, to feel in control and what my book argues is that there’s very little we actually can control and that’s okay,” Chilson said. “Our world is full of systems that exhibit something called emergent order and that is order that comes about from the actions of individuals but where there’s no one person in charge. And that’s a very powerful concept and one that I think helps us solve some of the most complex problems that we face.”
Individuals, Chilson, may feel out of control but they can still spark change.
“Institutions are really the only way to get big substantive things done to help improve the world and so … one of the biggest effects that you as an individual can have is to help shape the institutions that you’re part of. You can’t control them, just like you can’t control the world, but you have the ability to have a huge impact on the world by shaping the institutions that you participate in,” Chilson said.
Chilson also addressed the role of government in regulating emergent tech companies, calling it “complicated.”
“If companies aren’t lying to their consumers … there’s probably not a really strong role,” he said, “but there’s lots of other ways we can tackle some of these very concerning problems that don’t have to involve government.”
