[Bmi] Discussion on group intelligence

[Carlos Gershenson]

> 
> Do you know many cases where groups get better ideas than its individuals?  For which kinds of problems does that happen?

See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collective_intelligence

In this paper they offer some overview of collective intelligence (attached below):
Evidence for a Collective Intelligence Factor in the Performance of Human Groups
Anita Williams Woolley, Christopher F. Chabris, Alex Pentland, Nada Hashmi, and Thomas W. Malone
Science 29 October 2010: 330 (6004), 686-688.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1126/science.1193147
Their results show that groups of people work better not depending on the intelligence of individuals, but on how efficiently they interact. There is an interesting 6 min related TED talk at http://www.ted.com/talks/tom_wujec_build_a_tower.html

I believe that Prof. Weng generalized the question: any cognitive system can be divided into components, usually the properties of the system are different than those of its components (e.g. neurons+molecules+energy), but we usually do not refer to properties of a brain as "group intelligence", even when it is indeed product of a collection of neurons, etc. It is just a convention.

Best wishes,
Caros

	Dr. Carlos Gershenson
	Instituto de Investigaciones en Matemáticas Aplicadas y en Sistemas
	Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México
	A.P. 20-726, 01000, México, D.F., México
	http://turing.iimas.unam.mx/~cgg/

	Editor-in-Chief, Complexity Digest
	http://comdig.unam.mx
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