武夷山老师在博文“ 美国社会科学亟待回答的 10 大问题 ”中介绍了 2011 年 2 月哈佛大学所公布的“ 社会科学最重大的 10 个问题 ”( Jim Giles , Social science lines up its biggest challenges, Nature, V470 (3 Feb. 2011): 18-19 ),对其中的两个问题(第五个问题与第六个问题)很感兴趣,这两个问题分别是: How can we aggregate information possessed by individuals to make the best decisions? 我们如何将个体所处理的信息集中起来,做出最佳决策? How can we understand the human capacity to create and articulate knowledge? 我们如何认识理解人类创造和表述知识的能力? 按照 timy 的观点,这两个问题都属于 交叉学科的问题,这一定程度上显示,社会计算仍然是未来研究热点 。武老师认为是 “机器帮助大脑”。而文明上一阶段的特征是“机器帮助四肢”。 我认为 这两个问题的理论核心还是“智能”问题,包括人工智能,人的智能,集体智能,社会智能等,在应用层面则体现在如何利用数据、信息和知识进行有效决策。
据 Thomson Reuters 2010年3月24日报道,1999-2009年之间 , Web of Science 社会科学引文数据库收录我国18363篇论文,对其作者的单位进行分析统计结果显示,高产单位前10名中,有七家来自香港地区,前5名全部被香港包揽,香港中文大学名列榜首,2863篇论文入选;其次香港大学(2728篇),香港理工大学(1714篇),北京大学(1053篇)位于第六,中国科学院第七(946篇),北京师范大学(455篇)名列第九。详细报道见下: Ten Most Prolific Chinese Institutions in Social Sciences, 1999-2009 Of Chinese institutions whose researchers published papers in Thomson Reuters -indexed journals in the Social Sciences (as defined by the Web of Science Social Sciences Citation Index database) between 1999 and 2009, those below represent the 10 institutions contributing the highest percent of China's output (18,363 papers total) in this field. Some of the topics covered in the 2,863 papers published in part by the Chinese University of Hong Kong include designing cross-cultural research, international variation in the incidence of hip fractures, eating disorders among high school females in China, academic self-concept in Hong Kong schools, and ownership and control in corporations. The University of Hong Kong's highly cited papers cover such diverse topics as multicultural minds, suicide prevention strategies, information technology acceptance studies, functional MRI studies of brain activation during the processing of Chinese characters and words, modeling sustainable urban development, and healthcare professionals' acceptance of telemedicine technology. Meanwhile, among mainland institutions, Peking University has contributed papers relating to nicotine addiction, indigenous Chinese personality constructs, national character vs. mean personality traits, the prevalence of mental disorders in metropolitan China, east-west differences in psychological well-being, employee performance in China, and sex-selective abortion in rural central China. The full list of the most prolific Chinese institutions in the Social Sciences is as follows: Rank Institution Papers % of China's total papers 1 CHINESE UNIVERSITY OF HONG KONG 2863 15.59% 2 UNIVERSITY OF HONG KONG 2728 14.85% 3 HONG KONG POLYTECHNIC UNIVERSITY 1714 9.33% 4 CITY UNIVERSITY OF HONG KONG 1543 8.40% 5 HONG KONG UNIVERSITY OF SCIENCE TECHNOLOGY 1143 6.22% 6 PEKING UNIVERSITY 1053 5.73% 7 CHINESE ACADEMY OF SCIENCES 946 5.15% 8 HONG KONG BAPTIST UNIVERSITY 529 2.88% 9 BEIJING NORMAL UNIVERSITY 455 2.47% 10 LINGNAN UNIVERSITY 343 1.86% SOURCE: Thomson Reuters Web of Science data as of 24 March 2010 (SSCI, 1999-2009, addresses containing "China," original articles, reviews, and proceedings papers only.