There is a phrase called
swarm intelligence.
Swarm intelligence (SI) according to Wikipedia is defined as "the collective behaviour of decentralized, self-organized systems, natural or artificial". SI systems are made up of agents, and the interaction between them results to an
"intelligent" global behavior. Each agent, however, is unaware of this emergent behavior. An example is the observed behavior in flocks of birds. In fact, based on this "swarming" inspiration, the
Traveling Salesman Problem can be solved. So there is actually hope for a system wherein each individual is acting "stupidly" because collectively speaking, there is a possibility that the system will actually "look" or "act" intelligent at the bigger picture. I find this amusing because a "barbaric" crowd may be intelligent at a particular perspective. If applied to an appropriate problem, a "barbaric" crowd may actually solve the problem for you. I'm actually wondering what problem could that be. :)
 |
| school of fish (Photo by: Alan Wolf) |
 |
| bees (Photo by: Todd Huffman) |
 | |
| flock of birds (Photo by: Eugene Zemlyanskiy) |
|
|
|
|
|
|
