A CAD tool for supermind design

Abstract

The rise of information technology has paved the way for a world that is more connected than ever before. This accelerated the prominence of collective intelligence as an attribute of groups and systems of individuals collaborating, or competing together to innovate and solve complex problems. We define these systems as superminds. In this thesis, I present a CAD (Computer-Aided Design) tool for designing and configuring superminds. This tool is based on the supermind design methodology developed at the MIT Center for Collective Intelligence. It aims to enable users to generate innovative possibilities for how to design various systems, especially the ones with human-computer combinations. The design tool is augmented by a design library that hosts a knowledge base for organizational design, business activities, and processes. The library relies on systematic taxonomies to organize its content and introduces a new framework of how to think about process and knowledge management in organizational design. These software tools aim to make the supermind design methodology accessible, and allow managers, consultants, and others to design transformational projects that drive innovation and harnesses the collective intelligence of their organizations.