The Science of Collectivity
This session is part of the Introduction to Political Technology course at Newspeak House, open to faculty and fellowship candidates only.
This foundational lecture explores how groups of humans can exhibit emergent behaviors and intelligence that transcend what any individual could achieve alone. Drawing from neuroscience, complexity science, and social psychology, we'll examine the mechanisms that enable collective action and decision-making. We will cover:
Why the collective? going beyond the individual brain
Emergence in social systems: The scientific principles behind how simple interactions between individuals give rise to complex collective behaviors - from flocking patterns to social movements
Collective Intelligence: When and why groups outperform individuals, exploring the conditions that foster collective problem-solving versus groupthink and social contagion
Social Technologies as Cognitive Extensions: How tools, rituals, institutions, and digital platforms extend our collective cognitive capacity and enable coordination at scale
Key Question: What transforms a collection of individuals into a genuinely collective intelligence capable of solving problems no individual could tackle alone?
Dr Zarinah Agnew is a neuroscientist by training. After spending over a decade in academia, they left to study the science of groups of brains - that is, humans in collectivity. Alongside their work with the college, Zarinah is Director of Research at the Collective Intelligence Project, which works to direct technological development towards the collective good.
On the side, Zarinah also runs three nonprofits aimed at experimental aspects of society, collective transformation and para-institutions. The Social Science Observatory is dedicated to the study of social science in the wild, Alternative Justices works towards abolitionist community-based harm prevention and response, and District Commons engineers experimental spaces where humans can ‘be otherwise’.
Together, these strands allow both the prefiguration of new social configurations, as well as the study of their transformational potential.