- the aggregated judgment of many independent agents outperforms most individuals — and often the best expert
- first articulated by Aristotle: the many, though individually inferior, can collectively surpass the few best
- formalized by Condorcet in the jury theorem (1785)
- modern revival: Surowiecki (2004) — conditions for wise crowds: diversity of opinion, independence, decentralization, aggregation mechanism
- in cyber: the tri-kernel is the aggregation mechanism. neurons provide diverse independent signals via cyberlinks. focus is the crowd’s verdict
- see collective intelligence