The brightest moments in the history of humanity show us that people who call "genie" figures are not usually isolated who come alone. Therefore, it is affirmed that intelligence is a collective reality.
Whenever one of these privileged minds appears, around them there are many men and women who also stand out intellectually.
The history of science is an example of this. The advances of some are impossible without the advances of others. Science has been a chain of discoveries, in which each link contributed what was necessary to continue. Without Copernicus there would be no Newton, and without Newton Einstein it would not have arisen.
"Military intelligence are two contradictory terms."
-Groucho Marx -
The same happens in all areas. That is why the "golden eras" arise in one or another field. They are moments in which some discovery or some proposal causes that many intelligences simultaneously produce great advances or developments.
This also occurs in smaller nuclei, such as work environments, families or groups of friends.
Intelligence, a collective reality
When you come in contact with intelligent minds, your intelligence is improved. Nobody can be truly intelligent in complete isolation. In reasoning, in the ability to see and find solutions, those around us always have a lot of influence. In a way, they stimulate or harm our intellect.
Ideas have larger wings when shared. The reason and sensitivity of others contribute to their growth and flow. The intelligence of others makes us smarter and vice versa. In this field, the environments are also definitive.
This reality has several consequences. The first and most important of these is to be aware that the links we have with others affect not only our emotional life, but also our level of intelligence. We also contribute to make others more or less intelligent.
Stupidity is also a collective reality
We are individuals, but we are also a community. Both facts are recorded in our essence. The current society, however, emphasizes a lot about the individual and little about the community.
In fact, one of the promoted ideals is the great individual achievement. Do something that leads someone to stand out above others and mark their name in the story with golden letters.
The selfish part of our being, which we all have, is not exactly the most intelligent. In fact, we come into the world selfish. The baby can not do anything but live according to himself and everything that meets his needs.
Thus, by sustaining selfishness at older ages, what we are doing is sustaining the most primitive territories of what we are.
There are interests that promote collective stupidity. Much of this stupidity is to believe that our task in the world is to seek the exaltation of our being at all costs, forget or set aside the power of the group.
Many see society as a disjointed whole, composed of individuals who only compete with one another. They believe that the purpose of everything is only to impose itself, but that is not true.
Collaborative intelligence
Jean Piaget said that one of the moral traits of those who have developed their intelligence at the highest level is the search for cooperative solutions. This implies having understood that we are interdependent and that any individual good is irrelevant, if it does not benefit others as well.
Individual conquests create an envious and fleeting satisfaction. There is a great amount of latent aggression in the desire to make others less exalted. It always has to do with feelings of inferiority and insecurity.
We want to be above others to reaffirm that we are worth something, that we can do something. However, this conviction is diluted as quickly as it arises.
The great geniuses of history do not refuse, nor refuse, to learn from others. On the contrary. Those who made great advances in thinking always started from the contributions of others to build their own ideas.
They are always encouraged to move forward with the desire to solve problems, not personal ones. This is precisely one of the signs of his intelligence.
Although science is the greatest paradigm of collective intelligence, or collaborative, the same logic can be applied to our day to day. How? Understanding that we are all part of the same adventure: to understand and resolve to live more fully and happily.