The somosphere is the sum of all man-made networks, systems, software and hardware required to support virtual identities used in social media and gaming. It combines the words 'somos' (Spanish meaning 'we are') and 'sphere' and describes a completely artificial zone that engulfs much of the Earth. Drawing on a comparison to the biosphere, the somosphere can be seen to have evolved from the need for
humans to communicate, moving from a purely verbal form of language to
one that could be written, distributed through invention of the printing press, telegraph, radio and
TV, and the
Internet, to its current state as a global electronic ecosystem that supports virtual life. Unlike the biosphere, the somosphere is not a self-regulating ecosystem, although this aspect is changing with major contributors such as network operators,
Internet Service Providers and social media giant
Facebook showing reluctance to moderate content or comply with
government interference (e.g. to prevent illegal downloading of copyright material). To this end the somosphere has emerged to be representative of the true will of the people, who are (for the most part) unrestricted by physical form, age,
gender, social standing, nationality, geographical and geopolitical location, relative and religious influences and taboo. To borrow a quote from Descartes, 'We connect, therefore we are'.
Recent
opinion polls have failed to appreciate factors within the somosphere, which could account for their poor performance in predicting the outcome of the
Brexit and
US Presidential Elections. Such factors include the reliability of statistics based on unqualified accounts; deliberate false accounting; trending within
anonymous groups; and media interference. Clearly big-data generated by activity within the somosphere alone is not reliable and, as with grossly overestimated predictions from mixed meteorological data over the effect of global warming, pollsters must rethink the models used when assessing the habits of real people in line with online advertising.
