diverse problem solvers outperform groups of high-ability homogeneous solvers — Hong & Page (2004)
the mechanism: diverse heuristics explore more of the solution landscape. ability hits diminishing returns; diversity opens new regions
formally: a random collection of agents with diverse search strategies outperforms a curated collection of the best-performing agents
in cyber: the tri-kernel embodies this principle with three orthogonal operators
- diffusion explores (random walk)
- springs enforce structure (hierarchy)
- heat kernel adapts (multi-scale smoothing)
- three diverse search modes, blended — provably better than any single one
at the agent level: diversity of neurons (human, AI, sensor, swarm) ensures diverse signals feeding the graph
see egregore