In many countries, we see large proportions of the population expressing ideas that are far removed from the solutions needed to resolve our current crisis. This leads us to wonder how we can collectively make good decisions.
Can the collective intelligence system function when the majority of people are inherently conservative (and therefore favor centralized power, etc.) ?
We see that life and intelligence appeared in our universe, not because they were integrated into it from the start or later on, but because the system (in this case, our universe) leads to this evolution.
Similarly, our neurons, taken individually, have a much lower intelligence (some would say none) than the whole. It is the way these neurons are assembled that forms intelligence.
The same applies here, meaning that the social framework has a significant impact on our way of thinking, and as collective intelligence changes this social framework, it influences individual thought. We will see in detail why this is below.
In our society, it can be optimal to have an illogical worldview. As people become disconnected from the long-term common good, thoughts become optimized for other goals, such as:
In a society where people are connected to the long-term common good, and where it is therefore beneficial to act based on logical ideas in line with reality, people are encouraged to think more critically. History shows us that during major changes (invasions, revolutions), a large portion of the population is not hesitant to adapt their thoughts.
For example, if a majority of people believe the Earth is flat, then one might imagine that in the collective thinking system proposed here, the global thought would be that the Earth is flat. But the truth has two characteristics that allow it to emerge: persistence and coherence. Here’s how:
The structure of representations in different strata, with logical reasoning at the base strata, provides in science and engineering a very strong coherence through a tree structure. The validity of a parent node depends on the validity of its child nodes. For example, the success of physical science comes from its applications (its child nodes) such as mechanical engineering, meteorology, etc.
By not reducing the scope of actions to the short term, it becomes difficult to ignore the truth. For example, if someone develops a theory that the Earth is flat and others use it harmfully, then a part of the responsibility lies with that theory.
Moreover, in cases of opposing truths, it is possible to mimic a system of the human mind: opposing ideas are painful to our mind (the famous cognitive dissonance), which drives us to solve the problem. One could, for example, imagine a system where the person ultimately proven wrong provides emotional energy to the one who is right.