[Horse] The term 'collective intelligence', IMO, is probably a misnomer in terms of the MoQ as it, incorrectly, appears to conjoin social and intellectual patterns. It may be better to think of it as 'collective knowledge' which can then be placed at the social level as patterns that accumulate and persist over time within a social context.
[Krimel] Exactly. The intellectual level is an outgrowth of the social level. It persists to the extent that society can support it. Just as society exists to the extent that biology can support it. As you move down the ladder you get increasing stasis. [Horse] All learned behaviours and other forms of knowledge that persist from one generation to the next but are not transmitted by biological means can now be neatly placed in this holder. Anything from how to crack an oyster open to the mangled grunts that constitute primitive language can be included, as can more complex language and whatever other social patterns you choose to include. [Krimel] And as you move down this chain we are left with no record of Gruntman's history. We know nothing about him but his skeletal structure and what kind of trash he left behind. Even this, is more than his great grandchildren knew. When more complex language developed, tall tails of great-great GranDaddy Speakman or at least his name would be passed down orally from generation to generation. What we know of these people is what finally got written down. The age of Writeman just ended. The Victorians presided over the beginning of the end. The written word tied the family of man together for more than 3000 years. Mediaman was short lived. But recorded sight and sound transformed the self image of mankind. A friend of mine once noted that pornstars are among the very few people in history ever to have seen their own asses up close. That is a picture no 1000 words could ever contain. In the present era Byteman can have his ass run through an MRI. He can see it in 3D; inside and out. Human activity and thought are accumulating at a rate that is hard to understand. Everything ever written before 1900 including all of the pictures ever painted and the scores to all the music can just about be stored on a thumb drive. What we have accumulated since fills our media as fast as we can make it. In this era each individual has access to the collected works of mankind. A child can ask any question and find an answer in seconds; probably several answers. I believe this confers a higher level of consciousness individually and collectively. moq_discuss mailing list Listinfo, Unsubscribing etc. http://lists.moqtalk.org/listinfo.cgi/moq_discuss-moqtalk.org Archives: http://lists.moqtalk.org/pipermail/moq_discuss-moqtalk.org/ http://moq.org.uk/pipermail/moq_discuss_archive/
