Something similar applies to our bodies. There are involuntary processes (cardio-vascular or digestive) which keep us alive even though no thinking is involved.
Highly intelligent solutions can be produced without relying on standard thinking. A good example would be collective intelligence workshops, which proceed as follows:
- For the first few hours people repeatedly engage in small-group discussions to do the thinking.
- These ideas are then consolidated in the whole large group.
- During the final two hours, an implementation plan is formed.
That way the collective intelligence of the group is leveraged to select the best ideas.
However, the author of an article on the management-issues.com website recalls how once there was not enough time to carry out the first phase. Small group discussions couldn’t happen; instead, people simply put post-it notes containing ideas on a wall. Then the top ideas were voted on.
This proved to be very successful. On this basis, group discussions seem unnecessary for leveraging the collective intelligence; a rapid exploring exercise is enough, so the usual discussions and thinking are not required.
Aggregation of multiple perspectives
Collective intelligence inherently leads to the correction of human biases present in individual thinking. Then the solutions are:
- extraordinarily intelligent
- incredibly fast
- consistently unbiased
- inherently benevolent
Unbiased solutions indicate that a higher intelligence is at play. AI applications designed as collective intelligence systems would give us the results of slow thinking with the speed of fast thinking.
-jk-