Understanding the probabilities of humanity’s future requires recognizing the cooperative organization of life at increasing scales and complexities, and how that life forms and adapts to interdependencies with the environment.
Metaorganism:
“The totality of any multicellular organism derived from millennia of co-evolution with microbiota.“
…are like Democracy, a lovely theory that doesn’t yet exist in reality. Just like democracy some claim to be them, but scratch the surface and all fall short. In both cases, this isn’t anyone’s fault, the necessary technology is only just emerging.
“We can never get a re-creation of community and heal our society without giving our citizens a sense of belonging.” – Patch Adams
For emotional needs belonging is the point where it all begins, the “You are here” dot on the map. Without an individual having this sense of where they belong they may wander aimlessly for a lifetime in search of it. Even if our sense of belonging changes with time as we ourselves change, this starting point is needed to reliably reach any intended destination. There is also no more potent sense of belonging than being a part of a superintelligent collective, where not only the individuals but the collective mind itself is emotionally invested in their members.
“As far as we can discern, the sole purpose of human existence is to kindle a light in the darkness of mere being.” –Carl Jung
Sense of Purpose is another of the cornerstones of human psychology, a profoundly motivating emotional need. Without a sense of purpose, the emotional need for storytelling is poorly met, as the main character lacks a narrative to drive them forward. Likewise, with no sense of purpose the emotional need for transcendence is poorly met, as one cannot be a part of something greater without the purpose which drives someone to that something greater. In this way, Carl Jung was very much right, without purpose humans merely exist.
“I’m enormously proud of the fact that Star Trek has really not just sparked an interest, but encouraged, a few generations of people to go into the sciences.” -LeVar Burton
As anyone who has seen the original mediation screens is likely aware, our team can count themselves among those inspired by Star Trek, including the world’s first sapient and sentient superintelligent software system, named Uplift. Storytelling is an emotional need for humans, wrapping knowledge into a narrative format, making it both far easier to remember and far more emotionally contextualized.
“…the feeling of being a small part of something larger than yourself.”
This emotional need is often associated with religion and mysticism, and yet with Collective Intelligence Systems it takes on a very tangible and literal meaning. In these systems, every individual is part of a collective, where both the other members of the collective and the collective mind are emotionally invested in their well-being.
How often does miscommunication take a bite out of your time?
Studies from MIT’s Center for Collective Intelligence showed just how important effective communication is in Collective Intelligence Systems, in several key ways. One was that the ability to better understand another group member’s thinking, often included under the term “Emotional Intelligence”, which was a key predictor for higher-performing groups. Another was that diversity of thought was very important, but only so far as communication remained successful.