Beyond collective intelligence: Collective adaptation

We develop a conceptual framework for studying collective adaptation: the process of iterative co-adaptation of cognitive strategies, social environments, and problem structures. Going beyond searching for “intelligent” collectives, we integrate research from different disciplines to show how collective adaptation perspective can help explain why similar collectives can follow very different and sometimes counter-intuitive trajectories. We further discuss how this perspective explains why successful collectives appear to have a general collective intelligence factor, why collectives rarely optimize their behaviour for a single problem, why their behaviours can appear myopic, and why playful exploration of alternative social systems can be useful. We describe different approaches for the study of collective adaptation, including computational models inspired by evolution and statistical physics. The framework of collective adaptation enables the integration and formalization of knowledge about human collective phenomena and opens doors to a rigorous transdisciplinary pursuit of important outstanding questions about human sociality.

Examining the plausibility of Donald Trump’s denial of responsibility for the 2020 assault on the U. S. Capitol: A dual-agency model of identity leadership and engaged followership

This paper develops a dual-agency model of leadership which treats collective phenomena as a co-production between leaders and followers. The model integrates work on identity leadership and engaged followership derived from the social identity tradition in social psychology. In contrast to binary models in which leaders or followers are seen to have agency, this argues that leaders gain influence by framing the agency of their followers and defining the parameters of their action but leaving space for creativity in how their goals are accomplished. Followers in turn, exhibit their loyalty and attachment to the leader by competing to be most effective in advancing these goals. We illustrate the model by drawing on a range of sources, most notably the events of 6th January 2021 when Donald rump’s exhortations to his supporters that they should ‘fight’ to ‘stop the steal’ of the 2020 election was followed by an attack on the Capitol. We argue that it is Trump’s willing participation in this mutual process of identity enactment, rather than any instructions which may (or may not) have been contained in his speech, that should be the basis for assessing his influence on, and responsibility for, the assault.

Collective Behavior of Secondary Particles in the Region of high Multiplicity in pp Interactions at 50 GeV/c

The latest results on the search for collective phenomena in proton interactions at the U-70 accelerator at IHEP (Protvino) are presented. This long-term experiment has been carried at the SVD-2 setup. Our study was aimed at a high multiplicity region where the series of collective phenomena is predicted. We have received an evidence of the formation of a pion (Bose-Einstein) condensate. We have observed two noticeable peaks in the angular distribution of charged pions interpreted as Cherenkov radiation of gluons by quarks and others phenomena.

Optomechanical synchronization across multi-octave frequency spans

Experimental exploration of synchronization in scalable oscillator microsystems has unfolded a deeper understanding of networks, collective phenomena, and signal processing. Cavity optomechanical devices have played an important role in this scenario, with the perspective of bridging optical and radio frequencies through nonlinear classical and quantum synchronization concepts. In its simplest form, synchronization occurs when an oscillator is entrained by a signal with frequency nearby the oscillator’s tone, and becomes increasingly challenging as their frequency detuning increases. Here, we experimentally demonstrate entrainment of a silicon-nitride optomechanical oscillator driven up to the fourth harmonic of its 32 MHz fundamental frequency. Exploring this effect, we also experimentally demonstrate a purely optomechanical RF frequency divider, where we performed frequency division up to a 4:1 ratio, i.e., from 128 MHz to 32 MHz. Further developments could harness these effects towards frequency synthesizers, phase-sensitive amplification and nonlinear sensing.

Religion as ‘universal obsessional neurosis of humanity’? Re-reading Freud on religion

In his writings on culture, Freud stipulates a close relation between religion and psychopathology, and obsessional neurosis in particular. In this article, I would like to explore the nature of that relation. How is it articulated, and how is it transformed in the course of Freud’s work over four decades, between 1894 and 1939? (How) can cultural (i.e. by definition, collective) phenomena be understood on the basis of symptoms described for individual psychology? On what basis can categories of individual psychology be extended to the analysis and history of cultural and societal formations? What perspectives can psychopathology open up for the analysis of culture? Is religion ‘the cure’, or ‘the symptom’? Or are there grounds for breaking open the relation between psychopathology and religion as it has increasingly solidified in the course of Freud’s work, and has been hotly contested ever since? This article works its way through these questions, and proposes to open some paths of investigation on the subject that are inherent in psychoanalytic theory, but have been prematurely closed off by Freud himself, as well as his adepts and critics.Contribution: This article critically engages with Freud’s most (in)famous statements on the relation between psychopathology and religion through an exposition of the articulations of this relation, as they change with the introduction of particular concepts and theories.

Optomechanical Synchronization across Multi-Octaves Frequency Spans

Experimental exploration of synchronization in scalable oscillator micro systems has unfolded a deeper understanding of networks, collective phenomena, and signal processing. Cavity optomechanical devices have played an important role in this scenario, with the perspective of bridging optical and radio frequencies through nonlinear classical and quantum synchronization concepts. In its simplest form, synchronization occurs when an oscillator is entrained by a signal nearby the oscillator's tone, and becomes increasingly challenging as the frequency detuning increases. Here, we experimentally demonstrate entrainment of a silicon-nitride optomechanical oscillator driven several octaves away from its 32 MHz fundamental frequency. Exploring this effect, we perform a 4:1 frequency division from 128 MHz to 32 MHz. Further developments could harness these effects towards frequency synthesizers, phase-sensitive amplification and nonlinear sensing.