A company by the name of Unanimous A.I. developed a technology that allows people to work together as a collective to make predictions, answer problems or have intellectual discussions. This software uses swarm intelligence to come up with its answers. This software is called UNU.
What is Swarm Intelligence?
Swarm intelligence is the ability for many distinct living organisms to work in harmony to complete a goal. As this video describes, the goal of this project is to allow for humans to act as one group, similar to fish, birds or ants, to accomplish a goal that the individuals could not. With this collective mind, we will be able to answer questions too big for a single person, or just use it for fun.
This collective could be put to work to use the combined ideas and minds of many to solve some of our world’s hardest problems. This idea of human swarm intelligence could have many amazing possibilities in the future.
How Does UNU Work?
This software works by having one user ask a question, then they either preset answers or allow other users to offer their own suggestions. From there, every user’s mouse becomes a magnet that pulls a single disk towards the answer of their choosing. Since every user is pulling at once you will get the answer that the majority agrees upon. This allows for people to come together to answer questions, make predictions or offer advice.
Where Can You Learn More?
You can learn more about it on the Unanimous A.I. website or by checking out the software yourself. You can also check out some of the papers they have published on the topic.
Comments and Opinions
This software is amazing. It will offer many opportunities for shared intelligence in the future. There are many amazing applications of swarm intelligence that could help progress our world to greater heights. Some of these could be advancements in math and science. UNU could be the stepping stone that leads to solving many of the world’s unsolved questions. Imagine the ability for all the people in the world to be able to contribute their collective knowledge to attempt to solve complex math and science questions. No longer would people have to solve them by themselves. This could revolutionize the way we expand our knowledge of the world we live in.
There are many examples of hive minds in science fiction. These hive minds are usually permanent or forced. Some examples that come to mind are Unity from Rick and Morty or The Borg from TNG. Swarm intelligence would involve a pseudo-hive mind that would not end up with the lack of individuality that these two predicted.
Swarm intelligence could push our civilization into a higher level of thinking. This technology would allow for international collaboration in real time. This could be one of the greatest breakthroughs in human computing.
