Blog of Collective Intelligence

It seems that Facebook can help members in "real-life" communities and networks to be more visible to themselves and increase their opportunity to think, feel, learn, and act together. That brings up two questions:

What combination of current Fb apps could support a circle of friends in cultivating their collective intelligence and wisdom?

What new, innovative app can you imagine that could become a big CI booster? (Hint: some of the categories, into which I classified this entry, serve me as reminders of the context for this question.)

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Robert Bystrom wrote in his comment on the "Connectivity ramp, CI, and Jaron Lanier" blog entry.

"Whenever you entertain an open question, you invite personal intelligence. Whenever a group entertains a shared question, they invite their collective intelligence."

Robert, the insights you shared with us in your comment are very much appreaciated. Not only they resonate with my own sense of CI and condtions favorable to its emergence but your focus on community empowerment is truly inspiring.

Regarding your key message that I quoted above, I can see that shared questions do invite collective intelligence but wether CI actually will show up, depends on a number of factors in each of Wilber's Four Quadrants.

The conscious cultivation of those factors may lead to higher level CI capacities. When dealing with complex challenges, nothing less will do. I am curious of what factors you differentiate and respond to in your practice. Would you say more about them?

I think not all open questions generate CI equally fit to call forth the most valued future of the organization or community. I call the ones that do "generative questions." Their power is in the qualities of the individual or collective attention and consciousness, from which they come.

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At the end of his feature on the Mystery of Collective Intelligence, in the May-July 2004 issue of “What Is Enlightenment?” magazine, Craig Hamilton asked: “What would it take for us to remove any barriers to the emergence of collective consciousness, not just as an occasional peak experience but as a permanent ongoing capacity?”

That question comes on the last of 24 pages filled with stories of small groups experiencing spontaneous irruptions of collective consciousness—described in very evocative images by their participants—and interviews with pioneers of the collective intelligence and wisdom movement. It is breathtaking survey and vista of this rapidly emerging field, that I recommend to all readers of this blog to visit.

The rest of this blog entry is a modest contribution to the efforts of addressing the question raised by Craig Hamilton.

Continue reading "From states of collective consciousness to a new, higher stage of CI" »

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I've just read a fascinating sentence in Wilber's One Taste:

"Once we have integrated the body and the mind, it is much easier--and more likely--that growth can then continue beyond the body and mind, into the realms of soul and spirit."

It seems that Wilber was writing about a progression of stages, through which both the Witness in us, and what we are capable to be aware of, evolve. Contemplating his words inspired me to look at Collective Intelligence through the lenses of the Wilber quadrants. Discovering the "collective intelligence" dimension within each quadrant would certainly give more depth to the concept and the field of CI.

If you happen to know anybody who is already working on an "All Quadrants, All Levels" approach to understand and appreciate Collective Intelligence, please let me know either by a reply to this entry or email to George at Community-Intelligence dot com. I'd be also curious to learn about any places in Wilber's writings where he is explicitly addressing issues of "collective intelligence" or "collective wisdom". I googled him with both terms but it didn't turn up anything substantive. What am I missing?

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The change in human consciousness which we call the enlightenment is the most decisive force shaping our present society - its effects are still being worked out. In particular it has affected the relationship of the individual and society, and working out how we feel about that has to be of interest to us all as individuals. Let us say then that the question is worth asking.

from In praise of individuation , by Sen McGlinn

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