Defining a continuum from individual, to swarm, to collective intelligence, and to general collective intelligence

Abstract

The concept of collective intelligence (CI) is distinguished from the concept of a general collective intelligence or GCI in that CI addresses a specific range of problems and therefore has narrow problem-solving ability, while GCI can potentially address any problem and therefore has general problem-solving ability. General problem-solving ability in groups has been represented by a GCI factor c defined in analogy with the individual intelligence factor g which measures IQ. While groups might have an innate GCI factor, GCI is a hypothetical platform that combines groups into a virtual collective cognition with a single well-defined thread of collective reasoning having general problem-solving ability, thereby creating an artificial c factor separate from the innate c factor. GCI also creates the opportunity to exponentially increase this c factor. This paper explores the differences between various forms of innate or artificial, as well as individual and group cognition.