Intelligence
December 02, 2008
Yesterday the New York Times published a great article about collective intelligence, "You’re Leaving a Digital Trail. What About Privacy?"
It covers a lot of ground on this vital subject. But it misses a very important point.
This article joins others in framing the subject of "collective intelligence" in terms of (a) computerized, online, and other high-tech systems for (b) collective information gathering, forecasting, etc., (c) to empower marketing, investment strategies, consumerism, productivity, activist impact, government control, or people's general ability to track each other, individually or collectively.
But I suggest that collective intelligence is so much more than a way for one part of a whole system -- government agencies, advertisers, investors, activists -- to predict, control, track, or manipulate other parts of the system -- competitors, enemies, consumers, citizens, etc.
Continue reading "Let Us Please Frame Collective Intelligence As Big As It Is"
posted by Tom Atlee on Tuesday December 2 2008
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May 15, 2008
I had an interesting conversation about choice today with my friend and colleague Adin Rogovin. We noticed that increased choice may increase or decrease happiness. Choice -- seen by most people as supporting happiness -- can be overwhelming, or false, or of poor quality. Lack of choice -- normally thought of as a source of unhappiness -- can make life simple, supporting happiness if one's life situation is otherwise satisfying. (And, of course, there is the variable of one's choice of attitude about life. Openhearted acceptance of "what is" supports happiness, while fighting it can generate suffering. But this is another totally separate variable.)
If we deconstruct choice into its components -- creating options, recognizing them, identifying a "right" option, and then selecting it -- we open up a whole other area of evolutionary inquiry.
Continue reading "Reflections on the evolution of choice and collective intelligence"
posted by Tom Atlee on Thursday May 15 2008
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June 23, 2005
On a walk yesterday, my attention was grabbed by some intensely radiating purple flowers. I wondered if part of their intensity was ultraviolet light which, though not fully visible to me, would probably attract bees.
Then I suddenly became aware of many flowers around me, in a wild diversity of shapes and colors. I remembered that specific flowers often have specific pollinators. It dawned on me that specific colors and shapes of blossoms would naturally attract specific insects and birds to pollinate them.
Continue reading "Waking Up to Nature's Evolving Pattern Recognition"
posted by Tom Atlee on Thursday June 23 2005
updated on Saturday September 24 2005
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June 13, 2005
I just returned from Australia. It will take a few days for my experiences there to ripen into something I can write for you. In the meantime, I want to share an intriguing example of human-animal communication and intelligence that came my way.
Among the hundreds of emails awaiting me on my return was one from the Lifebridge Foundation. They support innovative activities ranging from the Co-Intelligence Institute (with whom I work) to artist Aimee Morgana and her remarkable parrot N'Kisi, whose work they shared in the article below. Intrigued, I Googled N'Kisi. I didn't find the article referred to, but I found a comparable one about N'Kisi's conversational capacities, as well as one about a double-blind experiment demonstrating his psychic abilities (as well as a third article providing the full experimental data and much more about Ms Morgana's partnership approach to teaching her precocious bird).
Among the aspects of this that intrigue me are:
- I wonder how much of N'Kisi's apparent genius is due to his own exceptional intelligence, and how much is due to the respectful teaching approach used by Ms Morgana
- Parrots are already known to be among the most intelligent animals, and they are highly social. There is an interesting correlation in the animal world between complex social relationships and individual intelligence, which suggests once again a collective dimension even to individual intelligence.
- The fact that N'Kisi is only about 5 years old, and that he could live to be 60 or more - and that he can creatively use about a thousand words - makes one wonder what he will be saying decades from now, and how he might teach parrots about us and us about his brethren. Is that too far-fetched?
- Psychic abilities seem to suggest a level of cognitive interconnectedness among living beings. Some, like quantum physicist David Bohm, suggest that individual consciousness may be more accurately described as our window on collective consciousness, or our particular manifestation of it. We are not as isolated as we think. Although many forms of collective intelligence do not rely in any way on theories of collective consciousness, "noetic" (consciousness-based) theories are definitely part of the picture.
The email from Lifebridge notes N'Kisi is being featured in the Jane Goodall special "When Animals Talk" tonight, June 12 at 8pm EST on Animal Planet.
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Continue reading "What does it mean to share ideas with a bird?"
posted by Tom Atlee on Monday June 13 2005
updated on Saturday September 24 2005
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Let Us Please Frame Collective Intelligence As Big As It Is
December 02, 2008
Reflections on the evolution of choice and collective intelligence
May 15, 2008
Waking Up to Nature's Evolving Pattern Recognition
June 23, 2005
What does it mean to share ideas with a bird?
June 13, 2005
Growing Together at the Emerging Edge of Evolution
May 22, 2005
An Abundance of Collective Intelligence and Disaster - Why?
May 11, 2005
Is Collective Intelligence Like Individual Intelligence?
December 28, 2004
Distinguishing Co-Intelligence and Collective Intelligence
September 05, 2004
Polarization and Intelligence
September 05, 2004
Can we move beyond reptilian logic?
September 04, 2004
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