Individual Unite! Generating Synergistic Understanding Through Online Prediction Markets
Abstract
Synergistic understanding is a pre-existing self-organizing phenomenon
of social evolution that has the power to generate knowledge to collectively
identify and solve problems. Through the networking capabilities
of the Internet, online prediction markets can harness synergistic understanding
to gather information that would otherwise be lost. The isolated
participants in these markets can, through accessing and using information
contained within the system, collectively create new knowledge
without premeditation. The system these markets create is based upon
ten possible components that facilitate synergistic understanding. These
components should be analyzed to determine their role in generating accurate
predictions.
This paper outlines the theoretical framework for Individuals Unite!
(IU!), a collection of online prediction markets open to the public and
built upon the ten possible components necessary to produce synergistic
understanding and thus accurate predictions. IU! presents a possible solution
to a multi-disciplinary range of problems that has the potential to
benefit individuals, organizations, and society as a whole. IU! is a worthwhile
undertaking for the Symbiotic Intelligence Project of Los Alamos
National Laboratory to pursue because it closely aligns with the projects
stated goals.