Note from Anne, October 10, 1999

Dear colleagues,

The creation of shared knowledge has to do with an awareness of the intricate connectivity of all things, all actions that can be taken, and all perspectives that can be acquired. The word intelligence actually comes from the Latin intelligere, which means perspective, or to choose between. To "choose between" is what must be done to define an event path. To define an event path, just choose a "beginning" and then choose a point that one can call "the end". The in-between-ness is then revealed as the event points in-between.

There is a great deal of order in the world even if we are not completely aware of it. The brain depends on this order. One's mind works constantly to choose what is important and to sort the experiences of reality as well as the ongoing status of its own internal milieu. The brain will even create connectivity if some of the pieces of a thought, memory, or perception is missing. This is because, to the brain, connections are what makes sense, and making sense is sometimes more important than being complete.

When we communicate we create fibers of connectivity not only in the thoughts and perceptions of others, but very often in their actions too, which in turn affect yet other humans. It is for this reason that the sharing of thoughts and ideas between individuals is such an enriching experience. The ideas that are received from others create paths in a network. These paths, or pieces of them, are likely taken at some point, often without our awareness of the eclectic underlying structural fragments or the potentials defined by the network. The greater the complexity of the network, that one has to work from, the greater one's own creativity and, yes, in some sense, the greater is one's intelligence.

So the collection of ideas from different people collectively creates an intelligence. The group (not the sum of the individuals, but the newly created entity) affects not only its members and those affected by them, but anyone who has access, as in a web environment. Groups make changes and enrich in ways that could never really be known in advance. These actions occur as event paths in a network that we see only as an expression of the potentiality of the group.

Here is where perspective is important. An idea (story, whatever) , once spoken, is free from the confines of a single mind and goes off to others. Changed somewhat by the listener's own network of events. So it is different and it is the same. Once freed into the social world, it continues to be part of the speaker's network but also the listener's experiences change. There is an increasing connectivity. The connectivity can be built upon, it can entangle with preexisting paths and paths yet to be, to create new affordances, which given freedom, can strengthen understanding.

Here again the question of culture. The connectivity of positive knowledge can be absorbed by a group entity if there is enough diversity in its components. This is particularly true in the case of storytelling, where the listener lives a part of the storyteller's life.

-Anne