Fundamental Concepts of Collective Intelligence

A collective intelligence consists of a large number of quasi-independent, stochastic agents, interacting locally both among themselves as well as with an active environment, in the absence of hierarchical organization, and yet which is capable of adaptive behavior. The major concepts arising from our current understanding of collective intelligence are reviewed. These include stochastic determinism, interactive determinism, nondirected communication, nonrepresentational contextual dependency, stigmergy. These are illustrated using examples drawn from the literature on ant behavior. Several speculations into the dynamics of collective intelligence are presented, including nondispersive temporal evolution, broken ergodicity and broken symmetry. Several questions for future study are posed.