CiteULike: mpugsley's collective-intelligence

The Lucifer Principle: A Scientific Expedition into the Forces of History

Howard Bloom — 2007-05-11T00:47:15-00:00

(13 March 1997)

Now in a revised tenth-anniversary edition, The Lucifer Principle is a revolutionary work that explores the intricate relationships among genetics, human behavior, and culture to argue that evil is woven into our biological fabric. Intensely controversial and polarizing upon its initial publication, The Lucifer Principle is a sweeping narrative that challenges some of our most popular scientific assumptions. Drawing on evidence ranging from studies of the most primitive organisms to those on ants, apes, and humankind, Howard Bloom argues that nature uses evil not to destroy but to create and to build, moving the human world to greater heights of organization, intricacy, and power. In this special revised edition, Bloom provides a new introduction detailing the book's enduring impact and an extensive afterword discussing its relevance in a post-9/11 world and the current state of Islamic militancy versus Islamic moderates.

Wisdom of Crowds the

James Surowiecki — 2005-10-30T10:54:04-00:00

(03 March 2005)

Groupthink: Psychological Studies of Policy Decisions and Fiascoes

Irving Janis — 2007-05-02T19:11:08-00:00

(31 July 1982)

Emotional Intelligence: 10th Anniversary Edition; Why It Can Matter More Than IQ

Daniel Goleman — 2007-06-21T13:43:01-00:00

(26 September 2006)

Everyone knows that high IQ is no guarantee of success, happiness, or virtue, but until Emotional Intelligence, we could only guess why. Daniel Goleman's brilliant report from the frontiers of psychology and neuroscience offers startling new insight into our "two minds"—the rational and the emotional—and how they together shape our destiny. Through vivid examples, Goleman delineates the five crucial skills of emotional intelligence, and shows how they determine our success in relationships, work, and even our physical well-being. What emerges is an entirely new way to talk about being smart. The best news is that "emotional literacy" is not fixed early in life. Every parent, every teacher, every business leader, and everyone interested in a more civil society, has a stake in this compelling vision of human possibility. From the Trade Paperback edition.

The Archetypes and the Collective Unconscious

CG Jung — 2007-06-21T16:04:48-00:00

(06 June 1991)

Essays which state the fundamentals of Jung's psychological system: "On the Psychology of the Unconscious" and "The Relations Between the Ego and the Unconscious," with their original versions in an appendix.

Origin of Mind: Evolution of Brain, Cognition, and General Intelligence

David Geary — 2007-06-21T18:12:38-00:00

(30 October 2004)

Dreaming of the Future

Douglas Engelbart — 2007-06-21T22:54:40-00:00

Byte (September 1995)

tagging, communities, vocabulary, evolution

Shilad Sen — 2006-11-28T14:55:38-00:00

(2006), pp. 181-190.

The Structure of "Unstructured" Decision Processes

Henry Mintzberg — 2006-08-24T02:57:01-00:00

Administrative Science Quarterly, Vol. 21, No. 2. (1976), pp. 246-275.

A field study of 25 strategic decision processes, together with a review of the related empirical literature, suggests that a basic structure underlies these "unstructured" processes. This structure is described in terms of 12 elements: 3 central phases, 3 sets of supporting routines, and 6 sets of dynamic factors. This paper discusses each of these elements in turn, and then proposes a general model to describe the interrelationships among them. The 25 strategic decision processes studied are then shown to fall into 7 types of path configurations through the model.

Army Ants: A Collective Intelligence

NR Franks — 2007-06-26T02:25:16-00:00

American Scientist (March 1989), pp. 139-145.

Collective and distributive swarm intelligence: evolutional biological survey

Harold Szu — 2007-06-26T15:04:55-00:00

International Congress Series, Vol. 1269 (August 2004), pp. 46-49.

We survey swarm intelligence from microorganisms (bacteria phenol/genotypes of Myxococcus xanthus, and marine light quorum sensing in V. fischeri) to colonizing insects (ants, bees, termites) and flocking animals (pelicans). All seem to rely on some sensors for communication including local chemical pheromone secretions. We conclude that swarming robots prefer to operate at the equilibrium, at minimum free energy H=E-ToS, in cases of truly unsupervised learning among teammates without constant attention of human master.

Toyota Production System: Beyond Large-Scale Production

Taiichi Ohno — 2007-06-26T16:18:30-00:00

Here's the first information ever published in Japan on the Toyota production system (known as Just-In-Time manufacturing). Here Ohno, who created JIT for Toyota, reveals the origins, daring innovations, and ceaseless evolution of the Toyota system into a full management system. You'll learn how to manage JIT from the man who invented it, and to create a winning JIT environment in your own manufacturing operation.

Strategy and Structure: Chapters in the History of the American Industrial Enterprise

Alfred Chandler — 2007-06-26T17:52:24-00:00

(08 November 2003)

This book shows how the seventy largest corporations in America have dealt with a single economic problem: the effective administration of an expanding business. The author summarizes the history of the expansion of the nation's largest industries during the past hundred years and then examines in depth the modern decentralized corporate structure as it was developed independently by four companies--du Pont, General Motors, Standard Oil (New Jersey), and Sears, Roebuck. This 1990 reprint includes a new introduction by the author.

The Management of Innovation

Tom Burns — 2007-06-29T19:11:52-00:00

(01 November 1994)

First published in 1961, The Management of Innovation is one of the most influential books of organization theory and industrial sociology ever written. The central theme of the book is the relationship between an organization and its environment - particularly technological and market innovations. Based on first-class scholarship and engagingly written, the book presents the authors' now famous and ubiquitous classicifications of "mechanistic" and "organic" systems. For this it has become justly famous, but the book is also a penetrating study of social systems within organizations and organizational dynamics.

The Theory Of Social And Economic Organization

Max Weber — 2005-08-28T20:09:27-00:00

(01 July 1997)

World Brain

HG Wells — 2007-07-06T06:39:13-00:00

(1937)

Bass & Stogdill's Handbook of Leadership

Bernard Bass — 2007-07-08T14:13:19-00:00

(23 July 1990)

For seventeen years and through two editions, this Handbook has been the indispensable "bible" for every serious student of leadership. This third edition reflects the growth and changes in the study of leadership since the 1981 edition. There have been shifts in both content and method. Senior managers, for example, have become an increasing subject of inquiry. Distinctly separate fields of inquiry, such as political science and psychology, have been joined in this edition to build a broader appreciation of the phenomenon of leadership. Throughout the Handbook, the contributions from cognitive social psychology and the social, political, communications, and administrative sciences have been expanded.As in the second edition, Bernard Bass begins with a consideration of the definitions and concepts used, and a brief review of some of the better-known theories. Professor Bass then focuses on the personal traits, tendencies, attributes, and values of leaders and the knowledge, intellectual competence, and technical skills required for leadership. Next, he looks at leaders' socioemotional talents, interpersonal competencies, and the differences in these characteristics in leaders who are imbued with ideologies, especially authoritarianism, Machiavellianism, and self-aggrandizement. A fuller examination of the values, needs, and satisfactions of leaders follows, and singled out for special attention are competitiveness and the preferences for taking risks. In his chapters on personal characteristics, Bass examines the esteem that others generally accord to leaders as a consequence of the leaders' personalities. The more general examination of the personal factors associated with leadership has been extensively reorganized and expanded, and increased attention has been paid to knowledge, information, and intellectual ability, as well as to power and political tactics.The many developments in theory and research about charisma since 1974 have now made possible an entire chapter devoted to charismatic and inspirational leadership. Bass argues that a new paradigm of leadership -- transformational leadership -- has arisen that makes possible the inclusion of a much wider range of phenomena than when theory and modeling are limited to reinforcement strategies.Studies of women increased dramatically during the 1980s. Accordingly, Chapter 32 on women and leadership has been considerably expanded over the chapter in the second edition. Completely new to this edition are studies by European and Japanese investigators on the accelerating internationalization of management.Finally, a glossary has been included in this edition to assist specialists in a particular academic discipline who may be unfamiliar with terms used in other fields.

Democratizing Innovation

Eric von Hippel — 2005-05-30T18:12:47-00:00

(01 April 2005)

Innovation is rapidly becoming democratized. Users, aided by improvements in computer and communications technology, increasingly can develop their own new products and services. These innovating users -- both individuals and firms -- often freely share their innovations with others, creating user-innovation communities and a rich intellectual commons. In Democratizing Innovation, Eric von Hippel looks closely at this emerging system of user-centered innovation. He explains why and when users find it profitable to develop new products and services for themselves, and why it often pays users to reveal their innovations freely for the use of all. The trend toward democratized innovation can be seen in software and information products -- most notably in the free and open-source software movement -- but also in physical products. Von Hippel's many examples of user innovation in action range from surgical equipment to surfboards to software security features. He shows that product and service development is concentrated among "lead users," who are ahead on marketplace trends and whose innovations are often commercially attractive. Von Hippel argues that manufacturers should redesign their innovation processes and that they should systematically seek out innovations developed by users. He points to businesses -- the custom semiconductor industry is one example -- that have learned to assist user-innovators by providing them with toolkits for developing new products. User innovation has a positive impact on social welfare, and von Hippel proposes that government policies, including R&D subsidies and tax credits, should be realigned to eliminate biases against it. The goal of a democratized user-centered innovation system, says von Hippel, is well worth striving for. An electronic version of this book is available under a Creative Commons license.

Global Brain: The Evolution of Mass Mind from the Big Bang to the 21st Century

Howard Bloom — 2006-06-18T01:00:15-00:00

(03 September 2001)

When did big-picture optimism become cool again? While not blind to potential problems and glitches, Global Brain: The Evolution of Mass Mind From the Big Bang to the 21st Century confidently asserts that our networked culture is not only inevitable but essential for our species' survival and eventual migration into space. Author Howard Bloom, believed by many to be R. Buckminster Fuller's intellectual heir, takes the reader on a dizzying tour of the universe, from its original subatomic particle network to the unimaginable data-processing power of intergalactic communication. His writing is smart and snappy, moving with equal poise through depictions of frenzied bacteria passing along information packets in the form of DNA and nomadic African tribespeople putting their heads together to find water for the next year. The reader is swept up in Bloom's vision of the power of mass minds and, before long, can't help seeing the similarities between ecosystems, street gangs, and the Internet. Were Bloom not so learned and well-respected--more than a third of his book is devoted to notes and references, and luminaries from Lynn Margulis to Richard Metzger have lined up behind him--it would be tempting to dismiss him as a crank. His enthusiasm, the grand scale of his thinking, and his transcendence of traditional academic disciplines can be daunting, but the new outlook yielded to the persistent is simultaneously exciting and humbling. Bloom takes the old-school, sci-fi dystopian vision of group thinking and turns it around--Global Brain predicts that our future's going to be less like the Borg and more like a great party. --Rob Lightner "As someone who has spent forty years in psychology with a long-standing interest in evolution, I'll just assimilate Howard Bloom's accomplishment and my amazement."-DAVID SMILLIE, Visiting Professor of Zoology, Duke University In this extraordinary follow-up to the critically acclaimed The Lucifer Principle, Howard Bloom-one of today's preeminent thinkers-offers us a bold rewrite of the evolutionary saga. He shows how plants and animals (including humans) have evolved together as components of a worldwide learning machine. He describes the network of life on Earth as one that is, in fact, a "complex adaptive system," a global brain in which each of us plays a sometimes conscious, sometimes unknowing role. and he reveals that the World Wide Web is just the latest step in the development of this brain. These are theories as important as they are radical. Informed by twenty years of interdisciplinary research, Bloom takes us on a spellbinding journey back to the big bang to let us see how its fires forged primordial sociality. As he brings us back via surprising routes, we see how our earliest bacterial ancestors built multitrillion-member research and development teams a full 3.5 billion years ago. We watch him unravel the previously unrecognized strands of interconnectedness woven by crowds of trilobites, hunting packs of dinosaurs, feathered flying lizards gathered in flocks, troops of baboons making communal decisions, and adventurous tribes of protohumans spreading across continents but still linked by primitive forms of information networking. We soon find ourselves reconsidering our place in the world. Along the way, Bloom offers us exhilarating insights into the strange tricks of body and mind that have organized a variety of life forms: spiny lobsters, which, during the Paleozoic age, participated in communal marching rituals; and bees, which, during the age of dinosaurs, conducted collective brainwork. This fascinating tour continues on to the sometimes brutal subculture wars that have spurred the growth of human civilization since the Stone Age. Bloom shows us how culture shapes our infant brains, immersing us in a matrix of truth and mass delusion that we think of as reality. Global Brain is more than just a brilliantly original contribution to the ongoing debate on the inner workings of evolution. It is a "grand vision," says the eminent evolutionary biologist David Sloan Wilson, a work that transforms our very view of who we are and why.

Swarm Creativity : Competitive Advantage through Collaborative Innovation Networks

Peter Gloor — 2006-05-01T02:01:28-00:00

(05 January 2006)

Swarm Creativity introduces a powerful new concept-Collaborative Innovation Networks, or COINs. Its aim is to make the concept of COINs as ubiquitous among business managers as any methodology to enhance quality and competitive advantage. The difference though is that COINs are nothing like other methodologies. A COIN is a cyberteam of self-motivated people with a collective vision, enabled by technology to collaborate in achieving a common goal--n innovation-by sharing ideas, information, and work. It is no exaggeration to state that COINs are the most productive engines of innovation ever. COINs have been around for hundreds of years. Many of us have already been a part of one without knowing it. What makes COINs so relevant today, though is that the concept has reached its tipping point-thanks to the Internet and the World Wide Web. This book explores why COINS are so important to business success in the new century. It explains the traits that characterize COIN members and COIN behavior. It makes the case for why businesses ought to be rushing to uncover their COINs and nurture them, and provides tools for building organizations that are more creative, productive and efficient by applying principles of creative collaboration, knowledge sharing and social networking. Through real-life examples in several business sectors, the book shows how to leverage COINs to develop successful products in R & D, grow better customer relationships, establish better project management, and build higher-performing teams. In short, this book answers four key questions: Why are COINs better at innovation? What are the key elements of COINs? Who are the people that participate in COINs and how do they become members? And how does an organization transform itself into a Collaborative Innovation Network?

Collective Intelligence

Pierre Levy — 2005-05-15T19:46:45-00:00

(15 January 1997)

Pierre Levy sees us as moving past an information economy into an economy based on human interactions; a social economy. While the idea may seem startling, given our current emphasis on all things monetary, his reasoning makes you stop and give careful thought to ideas you may not have considered before. As technology advances, Levy points out, it's capable of taking on more and more advanced tasks--first simple labor and now the processing of information. As these capabilities become easier and well within everyone's reach, their value declines. But the one thing that is beyond the reach of pure technology is the construction and maintenance of social interactions. What technology can do, however, is make it easier for humans to interact over greater distances and around obstacles. "Our humanity," Levy writes, "is the most precious thing we have." Levy, who is a professor in the department of hypermedia at the University of Paris, then predicts that we will take greater control of that value and everything related to it as we use technology to organize ourselves into what he calls Living Cities. Here, physical location is less important than the interactions of its members, and not surprisingly, the lack of territorialities will challenge present methods of governance. Levy insists we are in the early moments of an historical paradigm shift of the magnitude of the Renaissance. And yet he avoids wild utopianism, keeping a clear eye on the realities and challenges inherent in any great transformation, complete with ample opportunities for things to go wrong. What emerges, however, is a different way of viewing the possible future, and plenty of reasons for asking why this utopian vision isn't attainable.