Information theory refers to signal-to-noise ratio. In a “noisy” environment, selecting information has as much if not more value than creating it. It is for instance the model of “followers”, “friends” or “circles” in the social networks: each user of the network becomes a curator of the information he receives, he generates an information feed to which any other user can subscribe.
This functioning is similar to that found at the biological level between neurons in the brain. They interconnect with each other through synapses. And some neurons are going to have more influence than others.
What is new is not the mechanism that has existed since societies were formed, it is the global scale that the Internet enables. In the past, connections were socially and geographically constrained. Now these connections no longer depend on distances. Or social classes: “On the Internet, nobody knows you’re a dog” unless you say so.
But how much awareness does a neuron have of the intelligence of the brain it is part of? How much awareness does he have of decisions that depend on the signals he emits? By comparison, how much awareness do we have of the consequences of the signals we emit on the planetary intelligence to which we belong?