Just my $.02
So much of "collective" behavior can be attributed to one of the
following 3 very linear principles:
1) Breadth... a group of individuals often has a wider range of
A) experiences
B) ideas
C) contacts
when what is being sought is a rare or unique piece of knowledge or
perspective, a group is more like to have it in its "union" than an
individual.
2) Smoothing... the "average" of many ideas is sometimes fairly
"stable" compared to any one idea/opinion... when a "stable" response
is more functional, a "collective decision" may be what is called for.
3) Positive feedback. When a bold decision is needed, a group can
reinforce eachother into making it, or following through. The
darkside of this is mob violence, panic, etc.
This last example might be considered "nonlinear" in one sense of the
word, but is hardly as interesting as what we usually seek (emergent,
qualitatively different/better results), no?
============================================================
FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv
Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College
lectures, archives, unsubscribe, maps at http://www.friam.org
