Can Collective Memory lead to Collective Intelligence?

An analysis based on one of the recent collective memories — COVID -19

Photo by Nate Greno on Unsplash

Collective Intelligence is a term very popular in the business world. Wikipedia defines it: “Collective intelligence (CI) is shared or group intelligence that emerges from the collaboration, collective efforts, and competition of many individuals and appears in consensus decision making.” Thus it is seen as a much better alternative to Intelligent Quotient(IQ) which is normally assigned to one person. Now the question of collective intelligence outside the domain of enterprises, especially in the domain of politics and policymaking is the need of the hour. Most of the countries in the world do exhibit some form of collective intelligence in their policy-making; the point of difference being the number of persons involved in that collective. When some governmental forms encourage greater participation, others don’t. Democracy was considered a form that ensured greater participation, but the experiences in many countries do raise questions on that and we leave that discussion to some other time or to better-qualified peoples.

Now the question I wish to raise is whether collective memories lead to collective intelligence? Wikipedia defines Collective memory as “it refers to the shared pool of memories, knowledge, and information of a social group that is significantly associated with the group’s identity.” When the Exodus event was a collective memory for the Jewish people, the Independence movement is one for Indians, and so on. World War II and its hazards are a collective memory for Europeans, especially those who experienced the cruelty of the Nazis. Now whether these collective memories contribute to creating a collective intelligence? It is difficult to generalize that statement without analyzing such collective memories in different cultures, traditions, religions, and nations.

After living in France for a year, I have seen that many of the Europeans (especially the older generations as they experienced it more closely) do have a certain collective intelligence, which speaks of the trauma of the second world war. I am sure that if Europe could experience almost 70 years without major interior conflicts between the countries (post-world war II), it is an expression of that collective intelligence. Now whether that experience was always instrumental in their political dealings with African countries is a complicated question with not-so-comfortable answers.

Another example is the Indian Collective memory called the Independence movement. One of the expressions of collective intelligence emerged from that is the constitution established under the leadership of Ambedkar. It is foolish to say that we have achieved everything which is promised by the constitution, but we do have made significant progress in some of the areas. It is a pity that the present governmental structures attempt to erase those memories or to give it different colors and to take us further back from the ideals of the constitution.

Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay

The point that is worth considering today is the collective memory called COVID-19. Probably it is one of the events (still continuing) that has an impact on most of the people in the world, though the impact has been varied. When some experienced tragic versions of their existing poverty, many others do have tragic experiences of losing someone. But for another section of the society, it has been a time of relaxation (especially those who do possess huge holiday homes or for those who have resources to manage things sufficiently well). It has also a time of loneliness and boredom for many, a time which brought a lot of unexpected (or sometimes unwanted) moments. Though it is impossible to find an experience that has some effects on people, COVID-19 is one of the rare experiences, that had a major impact on the world population. Thus it is a collective memory. Now the question is, does any collective intelligence emerge from it?

When the population had such a profound experience, the emergence of collective intelligence is a normal phenomenon. As a phenomenon, it may or may not be against the existing government. But it certainly demands something from the existing governments, which is to do things differently or initiate/terminate certain policy directions.

But the interesting characteristics of our contemporary world like neoliberal capitalism, nexus between politics and media, politics and capitalism, and extreme polarization existing in the societies (based on religion, caste, color, or ideologies) do give a big blow to the emergence of the collective intelligence, especially when it is not favorable to the big powers. Or they attempt to create fake collective intelligence baked in-between eye-catching advertisements.

Now the task is to tap that collective intelligence and employ it in decision making. Here the social organizations, research agencies, social and political scientists, journalists, and others do have a big role to play. Probably I will conclude with some expressions of that collective intelligence.

1. Pope Francis is planning to publish an encyclical on the theme of Fraternity.
2. A paper shared by one of my friend on Facebook, which says that “Data from farming and grazing studies show the power of exemplary regenerative systems that, if achieved globally, would drawdown more than 100% of current annual CO2 emissions.” (I am not saying that this research happened due to COVID-19, but that experience do help in the acceptability of the results).
3. It was a lesson on the importance of freedom and liberty. Hopefully, the developed countries would start using their soft-power more consistently against the abuse of freedom and power in many countries.
4. It invites us to guarantee appropriate social security schemes for all people in the world.
5. When we went out to a hotel, one of my friends said that we need to dine more here (not because food is bad in the house or he was eager to eat out) because these people don’t have much business and it really affects their life. Compassion and the realization of interconnectivity no more remains a theoretical concept, but part of personal experience.
6. Probably as many people have advocated, we should become more conscious about our decisions of buying the necessities of life and involve the local farmers, producers, and sellers rather than limiting our buyings to the huge super-markets.

And many more which we need to tap from different corners of the world and they should be brought mainstream and this collective intelligence should guide our policy directions.