About group intelligence - a fascinating read!

[Guest guest]

Dear All,

 

In my research i found an article from the National Geographic titled " Swarm

theory " by Peter Miller, which is about group intelligence and how it works. The

research for the book was based on the study of ants and how, without a leader,

they were able to work things out for the best of the whole hive! The article

also states that birds, fish, and cariboo also do not have leaders, and yet work

things out in a very collective way!

 

Apparently, not only is there no leader, but nobody tells anybody what to do,

and yet it works out very collectively! The study was very detailed and

companies are already adopting some of the knowledge to their work practices,

especially companies involved in complex multi-tasking such as Wikipedia, for

example. So here is an excerpt from the article, and the whole article can be

found in the URL appended.

 

Please enjoy!

 

violet

 

 

" Wikipedia, a free collaborative encyclopedia, has also proved to be a big

success, with millions of articles in more than 200 languages about everything

under the sun, each of which can be contributed by anyone or edited by anyone.

" It's now possible for huge numbers of people to think together in ways we never

imagined a few decades ago, " says Thomas Malone of MIT's new Center for

Collective Intelligence. " No single person knows everything that's needed to

deal with problems we face as a society, such as health care or climate change,

but collectively we know far more than we've been able to tap so far. "

 

Such thoughts underline an important truth about collective intelligence: Crowds

tend to be wise only if individual members act responsibly and make their own

decisions. A group won't be smart if its members imitate one another, slavishly

follow fads, or wait for someone to tell them what to do. When a group is being

intelligent, whether it's made up of ants or attorneys, it relies on its members

to do their own part. For those of us who sometimes wonder if it's really worth

recycling that extra bottle to lighten our impact on the planet, the bottom line

is that our actions matter, even if we don't see how.

 

Think about a honeybee as she walks around inside the hive. If a cold wind hits

the hive, she'll shiver to generate heat and, in the process, help to warm the

nearby brood. She has no idea that hundreds of workers in other parts of the

hive are doing the same thing at the same time to the benefit of the next

generation.

 

" A honeybee never sees the big picture any more than you or I do, " says Thomas

Seeley, the bee expert. " None of us knows what society as a whole needs, but we

look around and say, oh, they need someone to volunteer at school, or mow the

church lawn, or help in a political campaign. "

 

If you're looking for a role model in a world of complexity, you could do worse

than to imitate a bee. "

 

http://www7.nationalgeographic.com/ngm/0707/feature5/