272 HUMAN INTELLIGENCEIndividual inputs to the group are limited in range, although the social
dynamics add much to adaptability in challenging circumstances. Like-
wise with fi sh schools and bird fl ocks.
In contrast, the social mammals, like all mammals, inhabit more de-
manding environments. Th eir brains have already evolved considerable
plasticity in de pen dently of becoming “social.” When they did, their con-
tribution became so much greater to the micro- demands of social hunting
and other social structure.
Th e early hominids seemed to have experienced even greater unpre-
dictability of environment, which demanded greater cooperation. In
other words, in human evolution, the ability to participate in collective
intelligence itself became a precondition for survival and natu ral
se lection. Th e biological response was vastly bigger brains with far more
extensive neural networks for social participation. In consequence, vastly
greater contributions could be made by the individual brain to the col-
lective intelligence. Th at furnished the ability to abstract the statistical
structure of cooperation to a far greater depth.
So humans cooperate in a diff er ent sense than do ants, fi shes, and apes,
establishing a far more creative and adaptable intelligent system. In the
case of ants, as described in chapter 8, interactions among them lead to
the emergence of intelligent global be hav ior; but the consequences of
individual contributions are unknown to the individuals. Th e opposite is
the case in humans. Participants in human joint be hav ior need to be
mutually aware of the global objectives and consequences of individual
contributions—if, that is, individuals and group are to maximize both
the benefi ts of cooperation and individual development.
But these are the biological, cognitive, and social foundations of
democracy, defi ned as “a system in which all the people of a polity are
involved in making decisions about its aff airs” (from Wikipedia). Th ere-
fore, far from democracy being an unnatural state, as some seem to sug-
gest (see chapter 1), human cognitive functions seem to demand it. Social
and individual abnormalities emerge when, for vari ous reasons, individ-
uals are excluded from such awareness and such democracy (discussed
in chapter 10).
However, there is another big distinction with all previous forms of
social cooperation. We know that, from very early in human evolution,
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