Collective intelligence: an emergent semiotic system
Keywords:
Collective Intelligence, Multi-Agent Systems, Semiotic Systems, Niche Construction, Emergence
Abstract
The main idea I shall argue for in this article is that collective intelligence can be explained as a result emerging from the activity of a group of individual agents, all of which act within the framework of a common semiotic system, such as the cultural structures shared by them all and representing their common ground, the cultural niche where they born and grow up (their collective imagery, for instance).
The main deal, here, will be to detect the bases of the feedback loop mechanism which permits the development of this emergent semiotic structures. Also, I shall explain how human groups indeed constitute a very sophisticated case of multi-agent system, a collective intelligence whose main feature is its social ontology.
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Wilson, Edward Osborne (1975). Sociobiology: The new synthesis. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Bonabeau, Eric et alii (1999). Swarm intelligence: from natural to artificial systems. Oxford: Oxford University Press. PMCid:PMC16356
Clark, Andy & Chalmers, David, (1998). «The Extended Mind». Analysis 58: pp. 10–23. https://doi.org/10.1093/analys/58.1.7
Consiglio, Francesco (2017). «Information networks and systemic properties. An epistemological perspective». Disputatio. Philosophical Research Bulletin 6, no. 7: pp. 309–321. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.1489224
Consiglio, Francesco (Forthcoming). «Mindshaping through images».
Donald, Merlin (2010). «The Exographic Revolution: Neuropsychological Sequelae», in Malafouris & Renfrew (eds.) The cognitive life of things. Recasting the boundaries of the mind, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 71–80.
Ferber, Jacques (1995). Les Systèmes Multi–Agents: vers une intelligence collective. Paris: InterÉditions.
Gibson, James Jerome (1979). The ecological approach to visual perception. Boston: Houghton Mifflin.
Grassé, Pierre–Paul (1959). «La reconstruction du nid et les coordinations interindividuelles chez Bellicositermes natalensis et Cubitermes sp. la théorie de la stigmergie: Essai d’interprétation du comportement des termites constructeurs». Insectes Sociaux 6, no. 1: pp. 41–80. https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02223791
Heylighen, Francis (2016a). «Stigmergy as a universal coordination mechanism I: Definition and components». Cognitive Systems Research 38: pp. 4–13. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cogsys.2015.12.002
Hölldobler, Bert & Wilson, Edward Osborne (2009). The Superorganism. The Beauty, Elegance, and Strangeness of Insect Societies. New York: Norton & Company.
Jonas, Hans (1958). The Gnostic Religion. Boston: Beacon Press.
Keesing, Roger Martin, (1974). «Theories of Culture». Annual Review of Anthropology 3: pp. 73–97. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev.an.03.100174.000445
Kendal, Jeremy, Tehrani, Jamie, & Odling–Smee, John (2011). «Human niche construction in interdisciplinary focus». Phil. Trans. R. Soc. B 366: pp. 785–792. https://doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2010.0306
Kirsh, David (1995). «The intelligent use of space». Artificial Intelligence 73: pp. 31–68. https://doi.org/10.1016/0004-3702(94)00017-U
Kirsh, David (1996). «Adapting the Environment instead of Oneself». Adaptive Behavior 4, no. 3–4: pp. 415–452. https://doi.org/10.1177/105971239600400307
Laland, Kevin Neville & O’Brien, Michael J. (2012a). «Cultural Niche Construction: An Introduction». Biological Theory 6, no. 3: pp. 191–202. https://doi.org/10.1007/s13752-012-0026-6
Laland, Kevin Neville & O’Brien, Michael J. (2012b). «Genes, Culture, and Agriculture. An Example of Human Niche Construction». Current Anthropology 53, no. 4: pp. 434–470. https://doi.org/10.1086/666585
Marsh, Leslie & Onof, Christian (2008). «Stigmergic epistemology, stigmergic cognition». Cognitive Systems Research 9, no. 1–2: pp. 136–149. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cogsys.2007.06.009
Parunak, H. Van Dyke (2006). «A survey of environments and mechanisms for human–human stigmergy». In Danny Weyns, H. Van Dyke Parunak, & Fabien Michel (Eds.), Environments for multi–agent systems II, Heidelberg: Springer, pp. 163–186.
Ryan, P. A., Powers, Simon T. & Watson, Richard A. (2016). «Social niche construction and evolutionary transitions in individuality». Biology & Philosophy 31, no. 1: pp. 59–79. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10539-015-9505-z
Remotti, Francesco (2011). Cultura. Dalla complessità all’impoverimento. Roma–Bari: Laterza.
Sterelny, Kim (2007). «Social intelligence, human intelligence and niche construction»: Phil. Trans. R. Soc. B 362: pp. 719–730. Doi: https://doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2006.2006
Sterelny, Kim (2010). «Minds: extended or scaffolded?». Phenom Cogn Sci 9: pp. 465–481. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11097-010-9174-y
Sutton, John (2006). «Distributed Cognition. Domain and dimensions». Pragmatics & Cognition 14/2: pp. 234–247.
Sutton, John (2010). «Exograms and Interdisciplinarity: History, the Extended Mind, and the Civilizing Process», in Menary, R. (ed.) The Extended Mind, Cambridge: MIT Press, pp. 189–226. https://doi.org/10.7551/mitpress/9780262014038.003.0009
Turing, Alan M. (1950). «Computing Machinery and Intelligence». Mind 49: pp. 433–460. https://doi.org/10.1093/mind/LIX.236.433
Wilson, Edward Osborne (1975). Sociobiology: The new synthesis. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Published
2018-12-31
How to Cite
[1]
Consiglio, F. 2018. Collective intelligence: an emergent semiotic system. Disputatio. 7, 8 (Dec. 2018), a009. DOI:https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.2551881.
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