What’s Collective Intelligence?

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Collective intelligence, also known as shared intelligence, is an emergent property of groups that occurs when many individuals, collaborative or competitive, work towards the same end. This form of “intelligence” is not necessarily limited to humans – other organisms that live in groups, such as bacteria and ants, and even components of organisms, such as cells, exhibit emergent properties comparable to a collective intelligence or “group mind”. ”. Groups of sufficient size tend to overcome the tendency in small groups to attempt to minimize conflict by avoiding controversial topics or activities even if they are important. Even large groups are much less affected by biases from individual members than small groups. With these traits downplayed, a larger group working toward a common goal tends to exhibit much greater overall brainpower and problem-solving abilities than smaller groups or individuals.

There are several important characteristics that a group must possess for the emergent property of collective intelligence to fully manifest. Group members should openly share their thoughts and ideas so that all members can work with the same knowledge. These ideas, once shared, must be subject to criticism and modifications by other members of the group as long as such modifications and criticisms are also shared. Furthermore, ideas must be examined on their merits, not the reputation of the individual proposing the idea. Collective intelligence manifests itself most strongly when a large group acts almost as a single “mind”, with the free sharing of information and the synthesis of the body of knowledge of the collective.

Collective intelligence is a popular area of ​​study in many fields, such as neuroscience, psychology, business administration, and computer science. Computer scientists often build models to determine how various properties, such as group intelligence, can emerge from complex systems. Collective intelligence is of particular practical interest in the business world, as group decision-making often drives innovation, business plans, marketing strategies, and other important elements. Researchers work to gain greater understanding of the conditions under which collective intelligence emerges so that companies produce an environment that fosters collective thinking and innovation.

Modern advances in communication have rapidly advanced humanity’s capacity for collective intelligence. The Internet, in particular, provides a forum for the widespread dissemination, modification and discussion of many aspects of human knowledge. Individuals from all over the world with different backgrounds, areas of expertise, thought processes and cultural conditionings can all collaborate on the same topics, thus minimizing the effects of individual and small group bias and promoting the emergence of a “collective mind” from the interactions complexes of many individual minds.

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