James Surowiecki named for requirements for
"wise groups" in his book "The Wisdom of Crowds":
diversity of opinion, independence, decentralization
and aggregation. Large fish shoals should fulfill
them: "many eyes" lead to a diversity of opinion
about potential threats, the opinion of the "selfish"
fishes about a threat is not determined by the opinions
of those around them, and they are decentralized
by default. Somehow a fishy discussion thread..
There is also a new book by Patrick R. Laughlin
named "Group Problem Solving" which goes in
the same direction.
http://press.princeton.edu/titles/9339.html
-J.
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