Collective Intelligence

This post is not about the CIA. Rather, on favorite blog Ahab's Dream, James MacDuff gives me another opportunity to shamelessly plug my thesis. MacDuff cites a line from the Canadian film, "Les Invasions Barbares," which is, "intelligence is not an individual trait, but is a collective phenomenon, national and intermittant." I take this to mean that intelligence is best realized when surrounded by other, complementary intelligences. In other words, and if you're an economics freak and read my dissertation you'll get this, and otherwise you've already clicked away, concentrated intelligence (or human capital) leads to knowledge spillovers that push growth (economic, technological, societal) forward. What MacDuff and the film are really saying is that cities with smart people are what drive progress. I couldn't agree more.