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Collective Intelligence,The Invisible Revolution
Jean-François NoubelEnglish version reviewed by Frank BaylinPublished: 15 November 2004Last revision: 24 August 2007www.TheTransitioner.org/ci Contact info:Jean-François Noubel jf 
 
TheTransitioner.orgMobile: +33 6 15 10 60 33Office: +33 4 90 55 49 05
Copyleft 2004 - Jean-François Noubel – jf 
 
TheTransitioner.org page 1Collective_Intelligence_Invisible_Revolution_JFNoubel.odt
 
Abstract
The main stakes for humanity are not hunger, poverty, sustainability, peace, healthcare, education,economy, natural resources or a host of other issues but our capability to build new socialorganizations that are able to provide solutions. Our main stake is Collective Intelligence.This is a key issue in the corporate world as well. Today most large companies encounter insurmountable difficulties when dealing with the complexity and the unexpectedness of the worldwhen operating against a global backdrop. They undergo conflicts of interest in many areas –between profitability and sustainability, secrecy and transparency, values and value, individual andcollective dynamics, and knowledge fertilizing – that opens – and competition – that closes.What most medium and large organizations have in common is an infrastructure based onpyramidal hard-coded social maps, command and control, labor division, and a monetary systemstimulated by scarcity. Until recently, this social architecture was the only information system at our disposal to pilot and organize complex human edifices. We call it
 pyramidal collective intelligence
.It remains efficient as long as the environment remains stable, but it becomes vulnerable andinefficient in fluctuating contexts, namely when markets, knowledge, culture, technology, externalinteractions, economy or politics keep changing faster than the capability of the group to respond.Evolution has provided humankind with specific social skills based on collaboration and mutualsupport. These skills reach their maximum effectiveness within small groups of 10 to 20 people,but no more, where the individual and collective benefit is higher than what would have beenobtained if everyone remained alone. We call it
original collective intelligence
. As individuals, we allknow what it is because it is very likely that we have experienced it at some degree in our lives.Well-trained, small teams have interesting dynamic properties. These include transparency, a gifteconomy, a collective awareness, a polymorphic social structure, a high learning capacity, aconvergence of interest between the individual and collective levels, interactions characterized byhuman warmth, and, above all, an excellent capability to handle complexity and the unexpected.Is it possible for large organizations to benefit from the same properties? Can they become asreactive, flexible, transparent, responsive, and innovative as small teams? Can they evolve evenfurther, toward a global Collective Intelligence? Can they conjugate their interests with overridingconcerns of humanity such as ethics, sustainability, etc…? The answer today is a resounding yes.It is not only possible, but absolutely necessary for not just the efficiency of these organizations butabove all for the well-being of human society.The aim of this paper is to provide the key concepts underlying collective intelligence and toexplore how modern organizations and individuals can concretely learn how to increase their collective intelligence, i.e. their 
capability to collectively invent the future and reach it incomplex contexts
. This will draw the guidelines of a universal governance, provide an outline of the next democracies and help us forecast an economy in which competition and collaboration aswell as values and value are reconciled.
Copyleft 2004 - Jean-François Noubel – jf 
 
TheTransitioner.org page 2Collective_Intelligence_Invisible_Revolution_JFNoubel.odt
 
Table of Content
ABSTRACT ....................................................................................................................................................2ARE WE CONDEMNED TO INDIVIDUAL INTELLIGENCE AND COLLECTIVEINCAPABILITY? ...........................................................................................................................................5THE DIFFERENT COLLECTIVE INTELLIGENCES .............................................................................7T
HE
O
RIGINAL
C
OLLECTIVE
I
NTELLIGENCE
.............................................................................................................7
C
HARACTERISTICS
 
OF
 
ORIGINAL
 
COLLECTIVE
 
INTELLIGENCE
.............................................................................................8T
HE
 
 NATURAL
 
LIMITS
 
OF
 
ORIGINAL
 
COLLECTIVE
 
INTELLIGENCE
........................................................................................9
'C
IVILIZATION
',
AND
 
PYRAMIDAL
 
COLLECTIVE
 
INTELLIGENCE
......................................................................................9
T
HE
 
FOUR 
 
DYNAMIC
 
PRINCIPLES
 
OF
 
PYRAMIDAL
 
COLLECTIVE
 
INTELLIGENCE
.....................................................................10L
IMITS
 
OF
 
PYRAMIDAL
 
COLLECTIVE
 
INTELLIGENCE
.......................................................................................................11
S
WARM
 
INTELLIGENCE
...........................................................................................................................................13
L
IMITS
 
OF
 
SWARM
 
INTELLIGENCE
..............................................................................................................................13
FROM COLLECTIVE INTELLIGENCES TOWARD A (GLOBAL) COLLECTIVEINTELLIGENCE .........................................................................................................................................15W
HO
 
IS
M
E
?.......................................................................................................................................................16T
HE
 
NEXT
 
COMMUNITIES
.......................................................................................................................................16A NEW DISCIPLINE ..................................................................................................................................19D
EFINITION
..........................................................................................................................................................19F
IELD
 
OF
C
OLLECTIVE
I
NTELLIGENCE
 
AS
 
A
 
DISCIPLINE
............................................................................................19C
REATION
 
AND
 
STAKES
 
OF
C
OLLECTIVE
I
NTELLIGENCE
............................................................................................20
E
MERGENCE
..........................................................................................................................................................20H
OLOPTICISM
........................................................................................................................................................20O
BJECT
-
LINKS
 
OF
C
OLLECTIVE
I
 NTELLIGENCE
............................................................................................................21S
OCIAL
 
 NETWORKS
,
SMALL
 
WORLDS
 
AND
 
TIPPING
 
POINTS
..............................................................................................22L
ANGUAGE
...........................................................................................................................................................23S
EMANTIC
W
EB
,
MEANING
 
AND
 
MENTAL
 
REPRESENTATION
............................................................................................23P
ARETO
 
PRINCIPLE
 
AND
 
SOCIAL
 
JUSTICE
.....................................................................................................................24M
ONEY
................................................................................................................................................................25T
HE
 
QUESTION
 
OF
 
CONSENSUS
,
VOTE
 
AND
 
ACTION
.......................................................................................................26D
EMOCRACY
.........................................................................................................................................................27
THE TECHNOLOGIES OF COLLECTIVE INTELLIGENCE ..............................................................30S
OME
 
CURRENT
 
EXAMPLES
.....................................................................................................................................30
S
EARCH
 
ENGINES
:
THE
 
EXPERIENCE
 
OF
 
THE
O
RACLE
....................................................................................................30W
EBLOGS
.............................................................................................................................................................30W
IKIS
..................................................................................................................................................................31S
YNDICATION
(RSS).............................................................................................................................................31K 
 NOWLEDGE
 
TREES
................................................................................................................................................31
A
ND
 
TOMORROW
?................................................................................................................................................32
MMOG
S
,
PERSISTENT
 
UNIVERSES
 
AND
 
HOLOPTICAL
 
TECHNOLOGIES
..............................................................................32
Copyleft 2004 - Jean-François Noubel – jf 
 
TheTransitioner.org page 3Collective_Intelligence_Invisible_Revolution_JFNoubel.odt
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