WHAT IS COLLECTIVE INTELLIGENCE?

[collective intelligence]

Collective intelligence evolves ideas and progress that would be tenuous when done alone.

Assembling research in any given field of study is presented with three setbacks. The first is an inability to contrast work with someone assessing the same topic, a lack of controls during the information-gathering phase, and no associates to scrutinize the conclusions reached. Networking is possible but having a group centered on a single objective amasses knowledge from multiple people. But what is collective intelligence?

Collective intelligence is the body of knowledge that grows out of a group. When groups of people work together, they create intelligence that cannot exist on an individual level. Making decisions as a group, forming a consensus, getting ideas from different sources, and motivating people through competition are all components of collective intelligence.

Thomas Malone, the Patrick J. McGovern Professor of Management at MIT and the founding director at the MIT Center for Collective Intelligence, coined the term. In his book, “The Future of Work,” Malone has theorized that businesses of the future will look very different from today’s organizations because of collective information gathering. Artificial intelligence involving computers and other types of automation have produced collective intelligence as different types of groups connect to produce a body of knowledge.

Almost Everything Falls Under the Collective Umbrella

[what does collective intelligence mean]

In an interview with The Edge, Malone notes that virtually everything that he and other individuals do today falls under the auspices of collective intelligence. What we consider intelligence doesn’t just simply arise in everyone’s brains as it also encompasses the interactions among individuals. Malone defines the term as people acting together in a way that appears to be intelligent. The opposite, namely groups acting together in what may, for lack of a better phrase appear to be stupid, also occurs. Groups that qualify for the collective term include families, companies, countries, armies, and the like. Collective behavior, whether intelligent or stupid, has existed for a long time.