<html><head></head><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 16px; ">Dear Sandy et al.,</span><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 16px;"><br></span><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 16px; ">Another compelling example of groups getting better ideas than its individuals acting in isolation is the Polymath Project: <a href="http://polymathprojects.org/">http://polymathprojects.org/</a> . It was created in 2009 by Timothy Gowers. Not a mathematical slouch even when on his own (he won the Fields Medal in 1998), he wanted a way to make faster progress on difficult combinatorics problems than he could achieve acting solo. The first major success of this experiment in massively collaborative mathematics problem solving was a "simple" combinatorial proof of the Hales-Jewett Theorem (<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hales-Jewett_theorem">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hales-Jewett_theorem</a>) in only 6-7 weeks. It's a nice example because nobody can claim that the problems that the group is collectively solving are trivial, or that any of the individuals would likely have been able to come up with the solutions by themselves.</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 16px; "><br></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 16px; ">Of course, one could argue that what Gowers implemented is just a higher-bandwidth and accelerated version of what typically goes on in academic communities, where researchers build on and extend each others' published results.</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 16px;"><br></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 16px;">Best,</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 16px;">Rob<br></span><div><div style="font-size: 16px; "><br class="Apple-interchange-newline"><blockquote type="cite">
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you might be interested in this follow-on to my Science paper. We
found that 50% of the `collective intelligence' (objective
performance) of a group can be predicted by the pattern of
interaction alone. Similar results hold in real-world situations
(companies, etc) that we have analyzed. <br>
<br>
On 12/16/2011 10:32 AM, Carlos Gershenson wrote:
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<pre wrap="" style="font-size: 14px; ">Do you know many cases where groups get better ideas than its individuals? For which kinds of problems does that happen?
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<pre wrap="" style="font-size: 14px; ">See <a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collective_intelligence">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collective_intelligence</a>
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.
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1126/science.1193147">http://dx.doi.org/10.1126/science.1193147</a>
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 <a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://www.ted.com/talks/tom_wujec_build_a_tower.html">http://www.ted.com/talks/tom_wujec_build_a_tower.html</a>
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
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://turing.iimas.unam.mx/~cgg/">http://turing.iimas.unam.mx/~cgg/</a>
Editor-in-Chief, Complexity Digest
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://comdig.unam.mx/">http://comdig.unam.mx</a>
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<span><Signals and Speech-Interspeech-Pentland.pdf></span>_______________________________________________<br>BMI mailing list<br><a href="mailto:BMI@lists.cse.msu.edu">BMI@lists.cse.msu.edu</a><br>http://lists.cse.msu.edu/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/bmi<br><br>To unsubscribe send an e-mail to:<br><br>bmi-leave@lists.cse.msu.edu<br><br>Also, to subscribe or unsubscribe go to <br><br>http://lists.cse.msu.edu/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/bmi<br><br>and enter your e-mail address in the provided box and confirm your action by responding the the e-mail sent by listserv.</blockquote></div><br style="font-size: 16px; "><div style="font-size: 16px; ">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Helvetica; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: none; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Helvetica; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: none; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; "><div style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; ">--------------------------------------</div><div style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; ">Dr. Robert Goldstone<div>Chancellor's Professor of Psychological and Brain Sciences</div><div>Indiana University</div><div>Psychology Building</div><div>1101 E. 10th St.</div><div>Indiana University</div><div>Bloomington, IN. 47405-7007</div><div>812-855-4853 (work). 812-333-0152 (home). 812-855-4691 (fax)</div><div>Email: <a href="mailto:rgoldsto@indiana.edu">rgoldsto@indiana.edu</a> </div><div>Percepts and Concepts Laboratory: <a href="http://cognitrn.psych.indiana.edu/">http://cognitrn.psych.indiana.edu/</a></div></div></span></span>
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