Term 4 Week 6: Collective & Individual Intelligence
Thank you for your collective contribution to the discussion on Friday – it had me thinking about the power of collective thought which led to this article: Is Collective Intelligence Like Individual Intelligence? by Tom Atlee (2003). The article follows.
The capacities I explore here are perception, communication, memory, reflection, problem-solving, creativity, implementation, and feedback. They are listed in a loose order (we perceive first, then think about what we saw, then implement what we decide, etc.). Keep in mind, however, that these capacities are not really separate or linear. Most of them are deeply involved in each other's functioning. But I think you will find it interesting to explore them separately with me here...
PERCEPTION - Seeing, hearing, feeling, etc. -- these are different ways we absorb information from our environment, or gather it from within ourselves. This information is the foundation for everything we do with our intelligence. HOW DO WE DO THIS COLLECTIVELY? News reporters, photographers, satellites and researchers gather information, which shows up as stories, data, statistics, pictures, and so on -- adding up to collective perception available to the whole society (more or less). Clearly, the quality of this information -- its accuracy, completeness, relevance, diversity, clarity, etc. -- has a profound effect on how well our collective intelligence can function.
COMMUNICATION - For intelligence to operate, information needs to move from one place to another. Inside our brains and bodies, millions of bits of information streak through nerves and cell walls every minute. HOW DO WE DO THIS COLLECTIVELY? Communications media -- from telephones to televisions, from print media to powerpoint presentations, from classrooms to billboards, -- all these carry information from one part of society to another. Collective intelligence is served by keeping communication lines free of distortion, openly flowing, accessible, diverse and dependable.
MEMORY - Everything we each experience can be preserved for later use. Memory involves both storing information and being able to access it later when we need it. HOW DO WE DO THIS COLLECTIVELY? With files, libraries, databases, the memories of elders and experts, the World Wide Web and dozens of other methods for storing collective information and making it accessible. Society's collective memory survives generations, and is passed on through education, in which one generation is taught to access the collective memory of the culture's earlier generations.
REFLECTION / LEARNING - We think about things, sorting out and processing information. In doing so, we construct or modify our mental models and stories about how the world works. When we have models and stories that feel coherent and useful to us, we feel like we "understand" something. HOW DO WE DO THIS COLLECTIVELY? Academic and scientific research and philosophy, spiritual and ethical inquiry, as well as much art, literature, and performance generate and spread new collective knowledge and new collective insights about how life works.
PROBLEM-SOLVING / DELIBERATION / JUDGMENT / DECISION-MAKING - Life or teachers present us with problems to solve, options to weigh, decisions to make. In real-life problems, we need to weigh possible solutions against costs, potential consequences, and our values. Intelligence helps us work all this out. HOW DO WE DO THIS COLLECTIVELY? Democracy involves more public engagement in collective problem-solving and decision-making. Any institutions that help us do this well -- especially by using our diversity well -- become part of our society's collective intelligence capacity.
CREATIVITY / IMAGINATION - We can step "out of the box" -- beyond old ways of seeing, thinking and responding. We can imagine new possibilities and stories about life. This capacity is especially important when circumstances change and we need to adapt. HOW DO WE DO THIS COLLECTIVELY? Since individual creations are often adopted by the society, collective creativity is often rooted in individual creativity. So social and cultural factors that encourage individual creativity -- like freedom, social rewards and creative education -- can play a major role. A society can also stimulate collective creativity by using its natural dissent, conflict, and diversity well to shake up old ways and conformist dynamics. Certain group processes are especially effective at using diversity well, and the fruits of their group co-creativity can then be passed on to the society as a whole.
IMPLEMENTATION / APPLICATION / ACTION - What we know, believe and decide shape how we act. Furthermore, there are smart and stupid ways to use what we know. Still, as individuals, we tend to act as one agent. Such coherence is harder to achieve when many people are involved. HOW DO WE DO THIS COLLECTIVELY? The old way is command-and-control systems: Everyone is ordered to march to the collective drummer, or else -- or simply paid for cooperating. This approach provides collective coherence -- but it usually interferes with other factors in collective intelligence like creativity and diversity. New approaches to generating collective coherence often involve the co-creation of -- or free alignment with -- shared visions, values, purposes, goals, stories, etc.
FEEDBACK / REVIEW - This involves applying our intelligence to the RESULTS of our actions -- observing what happened, reflecting on it, creating new options (if necessary) to try again. We call this "learning from our experience." HOW DO WE DO THIS COLLECTIVELY? Review functions institutionalized to reflect on the results of every collective decision can particularly enhance collective intelligence, if they are done with high quality information and thoughtful conversation.
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