Book cover of Cultural-Historical Perspectives on Collective Intelligence: Patterns in Problem Solving and Innovation

Book description

In the era of digital communication, collective problem solving is increasingly important. Large groups can now resolve issues together in completely different ways, which has transformed the arts, sciences, business, education, technology, and medicine. Collective intelligence is something we share with animals and is different from machine learning and artificial…

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Why read it?

1 author picked Cultural-Historical Perspectives on Collective Intelligence as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?

This is a recent book and it does what it says in the title, showing through dozens of examples across history how collective intelligence evolved. It includes some familiar recent examples, like Zooniverse and Foldit, Citizens Assemblies, and Taiwan, as well as surprising ones from Athens to medieval Europe.

The core of the book provides a theoretical perspective that distinguishes what the author calls ‘human swarm’, ‘stigmergic’, and ‘collaborative’ problem solving, in each case linking contemporary examples to historical ones.

From Geoff's list on how societies think.

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