The Less Intelligent the Elements, the More Intelligent the Whole. Or, Possibly Not?

[2012.12689] The Less Intelligent the Elements, the More Intelligent the Whole. Or, Possibly Not? Skip to main content Search Submit Donate Log in Search arXiv Press Enter to search · Advanced search Electrical Engineering and Systems Science > Systems and Control arXiv:2012.12689 (eess) [Submitted on 23 Dec 2020 ( v1 ), last revised 15 Aug 2026 (this version, v6)] Title: The Less Intelligent the Elements, the More Intelligent the Whole. Or, Possibly Not? Authors: Guido Fioretti View a PDF of the paper titled The Less Intelligent the Elements, the More Intelligent the Whole. Or, Possibly Not?, by Guido Fioretti View PDF HTML (experimental) Abstract: From neural networks to the immune system to agent-based models, connectionism aims at deriving complex behavior from relatively simple components. However, one unsettled question is how ``intelligent'' these components should be, and in what ways their local intelligence relates to the emergence of collective intelligence. I approach this problem by endowing the preys and predators of the Lotka-Volterra model with behavioral algorithms characterized by different levels of sophistication, identified by extensive exploration of the relation between individual and collective intelligence across numerous disciplines. The main finding is that by endowing both preys and predators with the capability of making predictions based on linear extrapolations that exploit their knowledge of Lotka-Volterra dynamics, a novel sort of dynamic equilibrium appears, where both species coexist while both populations grow indefinitely. This explosive dynamics is coherent with economic interpretations of the Lotka-Volterra model. While this finding does not invalidate the connectionist philosophy that relatively simple components can generate complex outcomes, it also suggests that certain interesting macroscopic outcomes can only be generated by components that are not so simple, after all. Comments: 29 pages, 2 figures, 3 tables Subjects: Systems and Control (eess.SY) ; Artificial Intelligence (cs.AI); Adaptation and Self-Organizing Systems (nlin.AO) MSC classes: 93A99, 00-99 ACM classes: A.m; H.m Cite as: arXiv:2012.12689 [eess.SY] (or arXiv:2012.12689v6 [eess.SY] for this version) https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2012.12689 Focus to learn more arXiv-issued DOI via DataCite Submission history From: Guido Fioretti [ view email ] [v1] Wed, 23 Dec 2020 14:19:49 UTC (1,095 KB) [v2] Mon, 10 Jul 2023 10:21:58 UTC (688 KB) [v3] Fri, 14 Jul 2023 09:07:36 UTC (841 KB) [v4] Thu, 3 Apr 2025 16:33:24 UTC (712 KB) [v5] Thu, 6 Nov 2025 18:28:25 UTC (712 KB) [v6] Sat, 15 Aug 2026 18:48:42 UTC (233 KB) Full-text links: Access Paper: View a PDF of the paper titled The Less Intelligent the Elements, the More Intelligent the Whole. Or, Possibly Not?, by Guido Fioretti View PDF HTML (experimental) TeX Source view license Current browse context: eess.SY < prev | next > new | recent | 2020-12 Change to browse by: cs cs.AI cs.SY eess nlin nlin.AO References & Citations NASA ADS Google Scholar Semantic Scholar export BibTeX citation Loading... BibTeX formatted citation × loading... 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