Collective wisdom

Collective wisdom, also called group wisdom and co-intelligence, is an emerging phenomenon researched in fields of inquiry such as psychology, social psychology, and philosophy. The solutions arrived at from such studies are applied to conflict resolution methods for individuals, groups and nations. There are far-reaching implications for long term approaches to human relations. The results of shared research in subtopics of collective wisdom are being applied to new approaches to individual and group therapy, new understandings of expanded family and tribal units, conflict resolution  work, collaborative projects in the arts, theatre and music, the business and corporate world, and politics.

Definition
Collective wisdom is shared knowledge arrived at by individuals and groups, used to solve problems and conflicts of all humanity. “Crowd wisdom” is used to describe the dark side of collective wisdom, incorporating the negative implications including the results incurred by the herd mentality or group think.

Collective intelligence, which is sometimes used synonymously with collective wisdom, is more of a shared decision process than collective wisdom. Unlike collective wisdom, collective intelligence it is not uniquely human, and has been associated with animal and plant life. Collective intelligence is basically consensus-driven decision making, whereas collective wisdom is not necessarily focused on the decision process. Collective wisdom is a more amorphous phenomenon which can be characterized by collective learning over time.

History
Collective wisdom, which may be said to have a more distinctly human quality than collective intelligence, is contained in such early works as The Torah, The Bible, The Koran, the works of Plato, Confucius and Buddha, Bhagavad Gita, and the many myths and legends from all cultures. Drawing from the idea of universal truth, the point of collective wisdom is to make life easier/more enjoyable through understanding human behavior, whereas the point of collective intelligence is to make life easier/more enjoyable through the application of acquired knowledge. While collective intelligence may be said to have more mathematical and scientific bases, collective wisdom also accounts for the spiritual realm of human behaviors and consciousness. Thomas Jefferson referred to the concept of collective wisdom when he made his statement, "A Nation's best defense is an educated citizenry." And in effect, the ideal of a democracy is that government functions best when everyone participates. British philosopher Thomas Hobbes uses his Leviathan to illlustrate how mankind’s collective consciousness grows to create collective wisdom. Émile Durkheim argues in The Elementary Forms of Religious Life (1912) that society by definition constitutes a higher intelligence because it transcends the individual over space and time, thereby achieving collective wisdom. 19th century Prussian physicist Gustav Fechner argued for a collective consciousness of mankind, and cited Durkheim as the most credible scholar in the field of “collective consciousness.” Fechner also referred to the work of Jesuit Priest Pierre [[Teilhard de Chardin, whose concept of the noosphere was a precursor to the term collective intelligence. H.G. Wells's concept of "world brain," as described in his book of essays with the same title,  has more recently been examined in depth by Pierre Lévy in his book, The Universe-Machine: Creation, Cognition and Computer Culture. Howard Bloom’s treatise The Global Brain: The Evolution of Mass Mind from the Big Bang to the 21st Century examines similarities in organizational patterns in nature, human brain function, society, and the cosmos. He also posits the theory that group selection directs evolutionary change through collective information processing. Dave Pollard’s restatement of Collective wisdom: “Many cognitive, coordination and cooperation problems are best solved by canvassing groups (the larger the better) of reasonably informed, unbiased, engaged people. The group's answer is almost invariably much better than any individual expert's answer, even better than the best answer of the experts in the group.”. A well known application of collective wisdom is the television show, “Who Wants to be a Millionaire,” where participants query the audience to help answer questions.

References and further reading

 * Atlee, Tom, The Tao of Democracy: Using Co-Intelligence to Create a World That Works for All. (2004) The Writers’ Collective, Cranston, Rhode Island.
 * Bloom, Howard, The Global Brain: The Evolution of Mass Mind from the Big Bang to the 21st Century. (2000) John Wiley & Sons, New York.
 * Rogers, E. M., Diffusion of Innovations (5th Ed.). (2003) Free Press, New York.
 * Suroweicki, James, The Wisdom of Crowds: Why the Many Are Smarter Than the Few and How Collective Wisdom Shapes Business, Economies, Societies and Nations: Boston: Little, Brown, Boston.
 * Lee, Gerald Stanley, Crowds. A Moving-picture of Democracy. Doubleday, Page & Company. (1913) Project Gutenberg.
 * Le Bon, Gustave, The Crowd: A Study of the Popular Mind. (1895) Project Gutenberg.
 * Johnson, Steven, Emergence: the Connected Lives of Ants, Brains, Cities and Software. (2001) Scribner, New York.
 * Cass R. Sunstein, Infotopia: How Many Minds Produce Knowledge. (2006) Oxford University Press, Oxford, United Kingdom