Collective intelligence features the collaboration individuals in a group setting to bolster creativity, strengthen ideas, and come up with solutions that each individual would typically be unable to produce on their own. One might describe collective intelligence simply as “two heads are better than one” extrapolated into an even larger group. With the influx if technological advancements allowing for interactive learning environments through the ether, and now with Skype, facetime, and cloud computing creating more interconnection than ever before, collective intelligence can expand across fields, geographic areas, and indeed through the passage of time.

One way to think about collective intelligence is a library. Each book in the library has information to offer, and by combining ideas from multiple books, a new idea can be formed, a new manuscript might be written citing the sources. Like the library book example, each individual person has their own knowledge base, experiences, social conditioning, and creative inspiration. While each individual’s abilities and predispositions may indeed be good alone, their input when contributed into a cohesive whole through collaboration with other like-minded, and indeed different-minded individuals, the collective mind can be spurred into a more comprehensive and efficient operation for the betterment of all. 

This course is one example of the collective mind. Other human examples of collective intelligence include social media and search engines. There are many examples of collective intelligence or at least behavior in the natural world, such as ant or bee colonies working together to build structures, or wolves or dolphins working together to hunt. These analogies serve to reinforce the idea that by working together in collaboration opens up the possibility for greater achievement than going it alone. It is the story of human civilization; adapting and solving problems together in group societies has produced unimaginable innovation. 

Ultimately, the collective mind is a sum of its parts and the concept can apply to a classroom, a company, or even a country. Collaboration continues to stimulate progress worldwide and produce results which would not be likely or even possible without different parties avoiding isolationism in favor of collective advancement.