Collective intelligence as a public good

Abstract

We discuss measures of collective intelligence in evolved and designed self-organizing ensembles, defining collective intelligence in terms of the benefits to be gained through the exchange of information and other resources, as well as through coordination or cooperation, in the interests of a public good. These benefits can be numerous, from estimating a hard-to-observe cue to efficiently searching for resource. The measures should also account for costs to individuals, such as in attention or energy, and trade-offs for the ensemble, such as the flexibility to respond to an important change in the environment versus stability that is robust to unimportant variability. When there is a tension between the interests of the individual and those of the group, game-theoretic considerations may affect the level of collective intelligence that can be achieved. Models of individual rules that yield collective dynamics with multi-stable solutions provide a means to examine and shape collective intelligence in evolved and designed systems.