Resolved: Transgender & Muslim Athletes Use Human Swarm Theory to Compete in The Same Jiu Jitsu Tournament

PART 1:

If you are new to Swarm Theory, buckle up, because we don't foresee ourselves stopping talking about it for a long time, if ever. In fact, the more we explore it as a tool for solving problems, the more we are starting to think it needs an entire school, academy, or branch of science dedicated to studying it. We believe that the few researchers in the field right now have just begun to scratch the surface of its possibilities, and we are doing everything in our power to help propel this, including the story you are about to read.

Also, if you are indeed new to the idea of Human Swarm Theory—sometimes called Human Swarm Intelligence, Swarm AI, The Wisdom of The Crowd, or just Swarming—we recommend checking out some of our previous articles and podcasts on the topic, starting with this one HERE.

In the simplest terms, a human "swarm" is simply a group of people that uses decentralized thinking, problem-solving, and/or creativity to respond or behave as one unit. In other words, it is a group of independent people that act as one collective mind. Or, a brain of brains. Tim Urban touched on something similar in his recent book, "What's Our Problem?" Tim's description of an "idea lab" is very similar to what we would call a swarm, but without the structure and assisted technology. Idea labs are think tank-like places with set parameters and codes that prevent them from falling into what he calls "low rung" thinking and then "golems." Golems are groups of people who have succumbed to some of the perils that can exist in groups that are not careful, which, according to Tim, is usually caused by echo chambers (and we would agree with this assessment at least partially). However, on the other side of the coin, when groups of people can remain "high rung" thinkers that collaborate at scale, they can turn into almost magical beings—what Tim calls super-intelligent "genies."

excerpt image from Tim Urban’s book ‘What’s Our Problem?’ (which we highly recommend).

The key is to create genies and avoid echo chambers and golems when working in groups (aka groupthink and tyranny of the masses). We believe that using technology and codes of conduct to form human swarms is the path to achieve this.

The use of modern technology to enhance problem-solving processes for groups of people is the horizon on which Swarm Theory finds itself today. However, technology isn't absolutely necessary for swarming. In fact, the “wisdom of crowds” has been studied for over 100 years, well before computers or the internet even existed. Human swarming can be done with pen and paper, polls, or various other primitive methods, including group brainstorming, voting, rationalizing, mediating, and debating - as long as the goal is to get one answer from the group.

The sheer number of different ways that human swarming seems to result in positive outcomes is another indicator of just how much potential exists in this field and why it needs to be studied further. But what is even more fascinating than the ways that swarming can be successful is the scope of the uses for it. So far, there appear to be at least seven amazing things that groups of humans in a swarm do better than individual humans could. They are:

• Acute Problems - Problems like figuring out how many beans are in a jar or answering who was the third president of the United States. Swarming is much more effective than individual humans at solving problems like this. Just look at the lifelines from the TV show "Who Wants To Be A Millionaire" to see that polling the audience was over 90% effective, while phoning an expert or friend was much less so. Of course, that example isn't a properly executed science experiment, but you can see the point. However, there are many ways standard technology can beat human swarms when it comes to things like memorizing facts, playing strategy games like chess, or solving math problems. If acute problems were all that Swarm Theory could do better than individuals, it would not be that intriguing to us because other technology holds more promise. But this is just the tip of the iceberg.

• Predictions - This is something we touched on in our first article about Human Swarm Intelligence, and something that Swarm Theory seems to excel at. From predicting stock trends to forecasting where the next famine will be, human swarms consistently outperform Wall Street brokers, Vegas odds makers, and most experts. There is even the amazing story of how Dr. Rosenberg and his team correctly picked the superfecta of the Kentucky Derby using 40 horse racing enthusiasts and the Swarm AI software made by his company, Unanimous AI. A Newsweek reporter following that story bet $20 and won over $11,000 on the bet.

• Running Systems - For us, this is what brought The Society of Problem Solvers to the table of Swarm Theory. When a group of people can act and respond as one person, what happens when you put that group in charge of a system? Especially a system that directly affects the group itself. We have been told for years about all the dangers of groups - and it is true that they exist and need to be guarded against - but these are not unsolvable problems. Putting a swarm in charge of a system has varying degrees of meaning, but we have already seen some truly eye-opening and amazing results in this regard. There are so many interesting and exciting possibilities here, including swarms running businesses, governments, and more. But we will leave this for future articles and videos to unpack, as there are many examples and still much to explore.

• Creating Knowledge - This may be the biggest and most important thing humans could do as a swarm, and it is the least explored of the five. What does "creating knowledge" mean? We use it in the scientific way that the brilliant living legend David Deutsch uses it. In the entire universe, there are only two known places where knowledge is created. The first is in evolution. The second is inside the human brain. Humans can create good explanations, which can then be passed on as knowledge, and Swarm Theory seems to have massive implications for creating knowledge. This should be music to the ears of anyone who subscribes to David Deutsch's ideas of knowledge, like he discusses in this podcast HERE with Tim Ferris and Naval.

• Running DAOs - A decentralized autonomous organization (DAO) is an entity with no central leadership. Decisions are made from the bottom-up, governed by a community organized around a specific set of rules enforced on a blockchain. DAOs are internet-native organizations collectively owned and managed by their members. Using enhanced Human Swarm Intelligence seems to be a great way for DAOs to make decisions.

• Science Swarms - Many of us are tired of answering to authorities who are both easily corruptible and consistently wrong. Science itself has slowed down significantly in its breakthroughs since it has become more centralized with gatekeepers and funneled funding. There was a time, over maybe 40 years, when many breakthroughs in physics happened in a short window around the turn of the century. Since then, the more centralized science has become, the fewer major breakthroughs seem to occur (especially in physics). The exciting thing about swarms is that if you have two or more competing ideas, you can form separate swarms and experiment with them against each other to see the results. You could also "mix" individuals from competing theories into one swarm, with half trying to prove the theory and the other half trying to disprove it. There are many implications here for experimental science. Imagine if we had perfected swarming during the pandemic. We could have easily formed swarms and found the healthiest way through the pandemic, instead of letting centralized and corruptible entities control our fate. And we should absolutely use swarming if any outbreaks or diseases challenge us again. Swarms should be a staple in both medicine and science.

• Conflict Resolution - This is why we are here today: to tell you a short story about how you can mediate and resolve conflicts between groups of people using swarm theory. Let's get into that now…
  
  PART 2:
  
  An opportunity to apply Swarm Theory for conflict resolution arose last month during a Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu tournament in New York. There were transgender athletes who wished to compete, with specific requests and the need for rule clarifications. In addition, there were Muslim Jiu-Jitsu athletes who also adhere to cultural and religious practices that prohibited physical contact with members of the opposite sex who were not their spouse or loved ones. The tournament series had been making efforts to accommodate the Muslim community in this regard for years. However, this new element had been introduced with the transgender community.
  
  So, how would this problem be addressed? Would the decision-making authority solely rest with the tournament organizers? The tournament chose to take a unique approach by forming a swarm of individuals who would be most affected by the policies to resolve the issue. Therefore, most known Muslim and transgender students in the community were invited to participate in the process.
  
  It is interesting to note that in James Surowiecki's book "The Wisdom of Crowds," it is detailed how one of the principles of swarms or crowds is that the more diverse they are, the more intriguing, correct, and often agreeable the resulting solution tends to be. From an objective perspective, this case appeared to be an opportunity to test this theory.
  
  The following is the solution that the swarm devised. It is important to understand that this solution does not represent the entire Muslim community or the entire transgender community, but rather simply the individuals directly affected by the problem, who came together to formulate a solution that best suited their needs. However, it also doesn’t mean that a bigger group wouldn’t have come up with a similar solution. Especially if the people who were in the swarm were the ones it was actually effecting.
  
  Their solution:

• The tournament no longer features men's and women's divisions. Instead, there are now two divisions:

(1) The "born female" division, for individuals without added testosterone in their bodies.

(2) The co-ed division, where everyone is welcome.

• In the coed division the tournament will place all women and transgender athletes on the same side of the bracket, and the same applies to Muslims. Therefore, if transgender and Muslim students end up in the same division of this tournament, they will be positioned at opposite ends of the division to ensure they can only meet in the finals of the medal rounds.

• If they do encounter each other in the medal rounds, the Muslim athletes will yield first.

• If they meet in the finals in the future, the transgender athlete will step back.

Several points warrant consideration here. The swarm deliberated on why a separate "born female" division was necessary, and it was determined that this decision was not based on religious considerations, or psychological ones, but primarily centered around safety and fairness. Testosterone matters in sports, especially combat sports, and until more studies are done on this then they decided to put safety first. But fairness was also an issue. Arguments were made concerning how top female athletes in sports like tennis have lost to lower ranked men in their age bracket repeatedly and rather easily. This also applies to events like Bobby Riggs' matches in the 1970s. Additionally, in Jiu-Jitsu, a combat sport, safety is of utmost importance due to the inherent risks such as concussions, broken bones, and more, which are a daily concern.

Regardless of personal opinions on how this issue was resolved, those directly affected by the problem expressed satisfaction with the outcome. In addition to the implications swarm theory might have for conflict resolution, the lesson here also seems to be that when individuals who are affected by a problem are involved in the solution, the results can be far more effective than if decisions are imposed by top-down, centralized (and potentially corrupted) entities without a personal stake in the problem or solution. When you have a vested interest - skin in the game - and agree to participate in a swarm, there seems to be room for hope of a solution. Do you think we could do the same for other hot button issues? One way to find out is to try it and see.

We need more innovative minds to explore the potential of The Wisdom of Crowds and Human Swarm Theory with us. Naysayers will be silenced by results. But those who are intrigued, would you be interested in swarming some problems with us?

Stay tuned…..

Thanks for reading!

---

Problems are everywhere. Problems are soluable.

As always the entire purpose of The Rationalist is to connect with other solutions-minded results-driven people like yourself!

Thank you to all of the writers that make this possible. We are accepting guest writers, so if you have an idea for a solution, please reach out. Let’s solve it all, together.

For over 3 billion years on this planet there were only single-celled organisms. Then one day they somehow learned to work together and make complex multi-celled creatures . Right now we are like those single-celled organisms. Our next evolution is finding how to work together, better… (like we wrote about here).

#KillCorruption #UnifyAgainstCorruption #CleanSlate #ResultsMatterMost #DecentralizeEverything #DemandTransparency

COMMENTS ARE FOR EVERYONE AS A PLACE TO THINK-TANK SOLUTIONS. They will never be for paid-only subscribers and we will never charge a subscription.