The ant mill / Conway's story reminds me of the joke about meetings, teamwork, collaboration: "none of us is as dumb as all of us."
Of course collective intelligence is capable of amazing things, too. I think what this really points to is that the individual and the collective each have a set of incentives that aren't always aligned. Your behavior in the group won't necessarily match your tendencies as an individual.
The ant mill / Conway's story reminds me of the joke about meetings, teamwork, collaboration: "none of us is as dumb as all of us."
Of course collective intelligence is capable of amazing things, too. I think what this really points to is that the individual and the collective each have a set of incentives that aren't always aligned. Your behavior in the group won't necessarily match your tendencies as an individual.