A few days later it was New Year's Day, and Song Weiyang received three reporters at home.

One is Hu Song, a reporter from Outlook Weekly, the other is Pang Anming, a photographer from Outlook Weekly, and the other is Liu Ziran, a senior sister who graduated from Fudan.

"Hello, Hu Ji!" Song Weiyang shook hands on his own initiative.

"Hello, Mr. Song!" Hu Song said with a smile.

Song Weiyang said again: "Hello Pang Ji!"

"Hello, Mr. Song!" Pang Anming was fiddling with his camera. He was stunned when he heard the greetings, and quickly stepped forward to shake hands with Song Weiyang. He used to interview various celebrities and politicians, but he stood beside him and took photos. No interviewee took the initiative to shake hands with him.

Finally, Song Weiyang joked with Liu Ziran: "Senior sister, you are not bad, you are all Xinhua News Agency reporters."

Liu Ziran smiled and said, "There are so many reporters from Xinhua News Agency, I am just a reporter from Shenghai Branch."

"Outlook" belongs to the weekly magazine of Xinhua News Agency. This interview was matched by Liu Ziran. She also came over to listen to a few questions, and then wrote a manuscript to post it in local newspapers. Song Weiyang's current exclusive interview is particularly difficult to make an appointment, even Liu Ziran, a senior sister, can't make an appointment.

Hu Song said straight to the point: "Mr. Song, "Outlook" has many content sections. Your interview will be placed in the "People" section. This section is dedicated to the reports of protagonists or key figures in major domestic and foreign news events, as well as high news value figures with influence in Chinese and international affairs. The theme of this interview is based on the concept of Internet web2.0. Please take a look at the preset draft of the interview. If there are any inconvenient answers, or questions you find sensitive to, we can bypass them."

Song Weiyang took the preset draft of the interview and browsed it, nodded and said, "No problem."

"Okay, let's start now?" Hu Song asked.

Song Weiyang smiled and said, "Yes, be gentle."

Hu Song did not ask a formal question directly, but instead said, "I have received a lot of interview invitations recently?"

Song Weiyang smiled helplessly: "It's not only an interview invitation, but also various speech invitations. The daily invitation is double digits. Tsinghua University and Peking University also invited me to give a speech a few days ago, but I pushed them. If I promised this one, I had to agree to that one. How could I have so much free time? I had to reject Fudan's invitation, but the old principal called me directly, so I couldn't push it. After you finished your interview, I would have gone to Fudan in the afternoon. If I had known it, I wouldn't have been in the limelight."

"When it comes to the limelight, there are many reports about you in the United States now," Hu Song asked, "Have the American media contacted you?"

Song Weiyang said: "Yes, the American Time and People all sent me emails to give me an exclusive interview. Even gossip magazines like U.S. Weekly are joining in the fun. If you don't report any good celebrity scandals, why do you come to provoke me?"

"Exclusive interview with Time magazine?" Hu Song asked with interest, "Have you agreed?"

Song Weiyang shook his head and said, "I refuse."

Hu Song finally showed a surprised expression: "Being able to appear in Time magazine is a kind of honor for many people, why do you refuse?"

"Because the recent reports of the American media made me uncomfortable," said Song Weiyang. "There is an invisible big hand that is manipulating American public opinion and the Nasdaq, and I have become the tool held by this big hand. I don't want to be used by others, nor do I want to make such a false reputation. The American media is praising me."

Hu Song smiled and said, "Are you always so rational?"

Song Weiyang said: "I rarely feel irrational."

Hu Song wrote a few words in his shorthand notebook, sat upright and said, "Let's get back to the point, how did you think of proposing the concept of web2.0?"

Song Weiyang asked back: "Have you heard of Kevin Kelly?"

Hu Song thought for a while: "The founding editor of the American Wired magazine?"

"Yes, it's him," Song Weiyang nodded. "Kevin Kelly published a book "Out of Control" in 1994. When Hollywood filmed "The Matrix", the director asked all crew members, including actors, to watch "Out of Control" at least once."

Hu Song asked: "What is the connection between "Out of Control" and web2.0?"

Song Weiyang said: "The book "Out of Control" is not just an Internet work, it covers many aspects such as society, economy, culture, history, etc. Kevin Kelly connects life forms with artificial objects in the book. He said that life forms are becoming more and more stylized, and artificial objects continue to show life characteristics. He calls life forms and artificial objects with the characteristics of life forms "super life forms". The evolution of super life forms and the connection between life forms are all through the Internet. I think the inspiration for "The Matrix" probably comes from this book."

Hu Song knew that Song Weiyang had not finished speaking yet, and nodded in response: "In 1994, this is a very advanced concept."

"It's also very advanced," Song Weiyang smiled. "Kevin Kelly said that the connection between heaven and man-made things will become closer and closer, and when explaining this connection, the swarm effect was mentioned. No bee and ant were controlling the group, but there was an invisible hand, and a hand that emerged from a large number of dull members controlled the entire group. Its magic lies in the fact that quantitative change caused qualitative change, transitioning from the collective of individual onions to cluster collectives. As long as the number of insects is increased, a large number of insects gathered together so that they can communicate with each other. When a certain stage, the complexity reaches a certain level, the cluster will emerge from the insects, and the inherent attributes of the insects contain cluster attributes. Note that the keywords of these contents are 'emergence' and 'cluster'!"

This topic is obviously a bit brain-burning. Hu Song had never read "Out of Control" before. He subconsciously asked: "So, is web2.0 a product of a swarm effect?"

Song Weiyang nodded and said, "Yes, an individual in society is equivalent to an ant or a bee. Kevin Kelly said that using a cyclotron and an X-ray machine to explore a bee, you can never find the characteristics of a bee. People are the same. When you observe individuals alone, they are smart or ignorant, or profound or ignorant, they are just a single person. However, the Internet can connect countless individuals, and in the network, people can communicate with each other, inspire each other, and create together, which will form clusters. When cluster forces are integrated together, the characteristics of "emergence". So I think that the concept of web2.0 is actually the honeycomb effect acting on the Internet, the network is a honeycomb, and netizens are bees."

Hu Song asked: "Are these all Kevin Kelly's theory?"

Song Weiyang said: "It can be considered. Kevin Kelly said in the book that with the increase of the number of members, the possible interaction between two or more members may increase exponentially. When the connection degree is high and the number of members is large, dynamic characteristics of group behavior are generated. The so-called quantitative change causes qualitative change. Now the p2p technology is becoming more and more mature, which is enough to support the swarm effect of the Internet. The increase of every netizen makes the development of the Internet content grow exponentially. The Internet achievements in the next year may be equivalent to the achievements of the past ten years, which is a 'emergence' feature. So I say that the new era of the Internet is coming, and the prosperity of the web2.0 era will far exceed the web1.0 era."

Hu Song said: "Can you elaborate on the characteristics of web2.0 in more detail?"

"I have already mentioned the basic characteristics at the Internet conference," said Song Weiyang. "Let me repeat Kevin Kelly's description in "Out of Control". He believes that the cluster system has the following benefits: First, adaptability, the cluster system can continue to survive or adapt to new incentive signals when some components fail; second, evolutionability, the individual experiences and evolutions in the cluster can be transmitted from one individual to another, and ultimately trigger group evolution; third, infinity, in the cluster system, positive feedback can lead to an increase in order, spontaneous order can create more order, information can nurture more information, and life can reproduce more lives; fourth, novelty..."

Hu Song asked: "Is there any disadvantages in the cluster system?"

Song Weiyang said: "Yes, we use the Internet as an example. Non-optimality. In the past, websites controlled the network. In the era of web2.0, everyone created the network. Without the central brain control, network resources were chaotic, redundant content increased a lot, and repeated efforts of netizens and programmers can be seen everywhere. There is also uncontrollability. In the era of web2.0, no one is authoritative, everyone is a hero. Capital and programmers cannot control the development direction and can only follow the development trend of the Internet. There is also non-enabling..."

Hu Song said: "So Kevin Kelly predicted the arrival of the web2.0 era?"

"It can be said that yes, or not," said Song Weiyang. "Kevin Kelly's thoughts and discourses belong to the basic theory of web2.0, which is both clear and vague. He did not know that p2p technology could develop to this level at this time. It can be said that Kevin Kelly saw a general direction, but the development of details would be beyond his imagination. But Kevin Kelly had a very exquisite saying, saying that the group system belongs to the 'wisdom of the group'. This sentence summarized the web2.0 era, where everyone is ordinary, but everyone is a hero."

Hu Song said: "Do you like reading very much? The book "Out of Control" has not seem to have been published in China."

“I read the original English version,” said Song Weiyang. “Kevin Kelly had a great influence in the Western computer and networking world. Before he founded Wired, Jobs was his loyal reader, and it was still in the 1980s.”

Hu Song said: "Whether it is the cluster effect or the swarm effect, this seems to be a sociological theory."

Song Weiyang smiled and said, "I studied sociology in college."

Hu Song said: "Can you understand that the concept of web2.0 is not based on computer and Internet knowledge, but comes from your sociological thinking?"

"So that's it." Song Weiyang said.

Hu Song said: "Will web2.0 have an impact on the real society?"

Song Weiyang said: "I think web2.0 and real society influence each other. But in the era of web3.0, the Internet and real society will be combined into one and are inseparable. It will be difficult to survive in society without using the Internet."

Hu Song smiled and said, "Will you die if you don't go online?"

Song Weiyang said: "Diet is not to be true, but it is definitely out of touch with society, just like a secluded monk in Zhongnan Mountain. People are group and social animals..."

Hu Song soon discovered that he didn't know whether it would be out of touch with society without going online, but his interview today was out of touch with the preset draft. He originally wanted to talk about technology and the Internet with Song Weiyang, but he never returned to the direction of sociology and philosophy. Several times he couldn't get back to the right, but Song Weiyang always talked about sociology and philosophy as he talked about it, and even finally ran towards psychology.

Well, when Song Weiyang was studying in Fudan, psychology was also a compulsory subject.

As the topic became more and more in-depth, Hu Song was almost unable to withstand it and didn't know how to answer the questions. He could only guide Song Weiyang to continue to talk. In the end, the two met in the field of communication science. This was Hu Song's original major, and he was able to ask questions in a more targeted manner.
Chapter completed!