Larissa Condradt/ Elli Leadbeater/ Christian List

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Swarms of bees make decisions as a ‘democratic’ collective, voting on various possible nest sites through waggle dances. Does this phenomenon amount to a form of ‘collective intelligence’? Do we also find collective intelligence in humans? And what might humans be able to learn from bees about the best ways to act together and to make collective decisions? Philosopher Christian List, social insect biologist Elli Leadbeater, and evolutionary theorist Larissa Conradt consider the nature of collective intelligence in bees, humans, and other animals.

Speakers
Larissa Conradt, Affiliated Researcher, Center for Adaptive Rationality, Max Planck Institute for Human Development
Elli Leadbeater, Reader in Biology, Royal Holloway, University of London
Christian List, Professor of Political Science and Philosophy, LSE

Chair
Jonathan Birch, Assistant Professor, Department of Philosophy, Logic and Scientific Method (LSE) and Forum for European Philosophy Fellow

Co-sponsored by the Centre for Philosophy of Natural and Social Science, LSE

Recorded on 19 October 2016 at the LSE

Image credit: Donald Macauley, ‘Starling Roost‘