Evolution and Wisdom of Crowds

Rated by Thanuir on Nov 08 2007, 3:32am

Very interesting read.

Reviewed by yobaba on Nov 06 2007, 7:36am

"Wisdom of crowds" ... that's being kind. I would rather he had called the concept "crowd mentality", which is closer to the truth. Interesting arguments; if anything this article gives me a bit more confidence in Wikipedia.

Rated by MikeyMcMikenson on Oct 23 2007, 2:52am

Some of the analogies to evolution are off the mark. Nevertheless, the properties of complex and self organizing systems are fascinating and offering some as a preface to evolution seems pedagogically plausible. Now to see if we can learn some sense into a few creationists!!

Rated by brtkrbzhnv on Oct 20 2007, 1:20am

Clearly, collaborative filtering's fucking beautiful. But methinks maybe creationism qua political pennant is important too; 'tis maybe more important, indeed, than this interesting inability to take in intuitively queer concepts.

Rated by pcalnon on Oct 19 2007, 5:17pm

from the page: "Conventional wisdom says that the primary reason why so many people do not accept Darwin's theory of evolution is that they find it threatening to their religious beliefs. There is no question that religion is a big part of the reason behind the large number of people who reject evolution. But I am convinced that just as often, the cause and effect is reversed: people hold onto their fundamentalist religious beliefs because evolution by natural selection -- the strongest argument against an Old Testament-type creator -- is so counter-intuitive to so many. I arrive at this conclusion in a somewhat roundabout way. I have long been fascinated with systems that tap into the 'wisdom of crowds' -- systems that, in fact, have much in common with Darwinian evolution. Such systems doubtfully conflict with anyone's religion, and yet, I see the same sort of resistance to them as I see to evolution. The arguments against them are remarkably similar."