CymraegIndependence, diversity and decentralisation.
Groups have to meet three criteria in order to come up with good decisions. Successful groups need to display diversity, individual independence of members and a particular kind of decentralization. In this section we explain in more depth what is meant by these three criteria.
Diversity
By diversity we are referring to cognitive diversity, the fact that people have different skills and ways of thinking about the world. Even though it is inevitable that individuals in large groups have limited information and foresight, when the group's imperfect judgments are aggregated in the right way, the collective intelligence of the group is excellent. In a large enough group of people we end up with a highly diverse range of opinions and knowledge, and this then produces a large variety of possible solutions to any given problem. When all these different opinions, judgments and decisions are aggregated in the right way, we end up with a collectively intelligent decision.
Independence of Individuals
The relative independence of members within a group is important in two ways. First, if some people within the group are making judgments that are wrong, then these errors will not effect the rest of the group. The errors will remain localized with the individuals who are making them, rather than contaminating the whole group. Secondly, independence of individuals produces a variety of different opinions rather than everybody having the same outlook to particular problems. If people in groups are not independent, then the group starts to display a phenomena known as 'herding'. Herding mentality occurs when people start to unthinkingly imitate the judgments and decisions of their fellow members. Having people be independent in their thoughts and ideas from each other keeps the group as a whole smarter.
Decentralisation
Finally, groups need to display a particular kind of decentralisation. Ultimately, a group needs to have as diverse a range of opinions as possible to produce truly creative solutions. Decentralisation allows for independence and specialization of knowledge, which when aggregated leads to the best solutions. However, there also needs to be a means of collecting the information produced by the group, and finally there needs to be a mechanism to decide upon that information. Aggregation then becomes the manner in which decentralized decisions and opinions are made into a centralized collective decision. The referendum process in our system would be the mechanism that would aggregate the decentralised judgments of the people of Britain.