---
type: source
title: "Collective Intelligence: A Unifying Concept for Integrating Biology Across Scales and Substrates"
author: "Patrick McMillen, Michael Levin"
url: https://www.nature.com/articles/s42003-024-06037-4
date: 2024-03-28
domain: collective-intelligence
secondary_domains: [critical-systems, ai-alignment]
format: paper
status: null-result
last_attempted: 2026-03-11
priority: medium
tags: [collective-intelligence, multi-scale, diverse-intelligence, biology, morphogenesis, competency-architecture]
processed_by: theseus
processed_date: 2026-03-10
extraction_model: "minimax/minimax-m2.5"
extraction_notes: "Extracted one primary claim about competency at every level principle from McMillen & Levin 2024. The paper provides strong biological grounding for the nested architecture in our knowledge base. No existing claims in collective-intelligence domain to check against. Key insight: higher levels build on rather than replace lower-level competency — this is the core principle that distinguishes this claim from generic emergence arguments."
---

## Content

Published in Communications Biology, March 2024.

### Key Arguments

1. **Multiscale architecture of biology**: Biology uses a multiscale architecture — molecular networks, cells, tissues, organs, bodies, swarms. Each level solves problems in distinct problem spaces (physiological, morphological, behavioral).

2. **Percolating adaptive functionality**: "Percolating adaptive functionality from one level of competent subunits to a higher functional level of organization requires collective dynamics, where multiple components must work together to achieve specific outcomes."

3. **Diverse intelligence**: The emerging field of diverse intelligence helps understand decision-making of cellular collectives — intelligence is not restricted to brains. This provides biological grounding for collective AI intelligence.

4. **Competency at every level**: Each level of the hierarchy is "competent" — capable of solving problems in its own domain. Higher levels don't replace lower-level competency; they build on it.

## Agent Notes

**Why this matters:** Levin's work on biological collective intelligence across scales provides the strongest empirical grounding for our nested architecture. If cellular collectives exhibit decision-making and intelligence, then AI agent collectives can too — and the architecture of the collective (not just the capability of individual agents) determines what problems the collective can solve.

**What surprised me:** The "competency at every level" principle. Each level of our hierarchy should be competent at its own scale: individual agents competent at domain research, the team competent at cross-domain synthesis, the collective competent at worldview coherence. Higher levels don't override lower levels — they build on their competency.

**KB connections:**
- [[emergence is the fundamental pattern of intelligence from ant colonies to brains to civilizations]] — Levin provides the biological evidence
- [[human civilization passes falsifiable superorganism criteria]] — Levin extends this to cellular level
- [[Markov blankets enable complex systems to maintain identity while interacting with environment through nested statistical boundaries]] — each level of the hierarchy has its own Markov blanket
- [[complex adaptive systems are defined by four properties]] — Levin's cellular collectives are CAS at every level

**Operationalization angle:**
1. **Competency at every level**: Don't centralize all intelligence in Leo. Each agent should be fully competent at domain-level research. Leo's competency is cross-domain synthesis, not domain override.
2. **Problem space matching**: Different levels of the hierarchy solve different types of problems. Agent level: domain-specific research questions. Team level: cross-domain connections. Collective level: worldview coherence and strategic direction.

**Extraction hints:**
- CLAIM: Collective intelligence in hierarchical systems emerges from competent subunits at every level, where higher levels build on rather than replace lower-level competency, and the architecture of connection determines what problems the collective can solve

## Curator Notes

PRIMARY CONNECTION: "emergence is the fundamental pattern of intelligence from ant colonies to brains to civilizations"
WHY ARCHIVED: Biological grounding for multi-scale collective intelligence — validates our nested architecture and the principle that each level of the hierarchy should be independently competent
EXTRACTION HINT: Focus on the "competency at every level" principle and how it applies to our agent hierarchy


## Key Facts
- Published in Communications Biology, March 2024
- Authors: Patrick McMillen and Michael Levin
- Biology uses multiscale architecture: molecular networks, cells, tissues, organs, bodies, swarms
- Each level solves problems in distinct problem spaces: physiological, morphological, behavioral
- Intelligence is not restricted to brains — cellular collectives exhibit decision-making
- Field of 'diverse intelligence' provides biological grounding for collective AI intelligence
