Collective Intelligence.

When I was taking classes at Hankuk University of Foreign Studies, I had heated argument with one of my professor on this topic. Professor 'A' claimed that this is merely an illusion, and if there is one, it usually leads into 'mass-stupidity' rather than the desirable effect of 'collective intelligence'. I countered professor 'A' with examples such as wikipedia (or, in this case, Halo-pedia) being most prominent example, which then professor A countered me with so-called fallacy of democracy.

Is there such a thing as collective intelligence? Since Pierre Levy's first invention of this term in 1994, there are controversies whether such a concept truly exists. I am proponent of this concept, believe that there are indeed 'collective intelligence' and mass's intelligence can serve people to improve our world, and in this case, Halo users are creating their own wikipedia to help and share other users' experiences and stories. On the other hand, those who does not believe such a concept (as Professor A) usually also have negative opinions on spreading the wealth around, as he told me that 'the voting right should not be given to women and those who did not serve army'*

*Readers must be aware, that 1) This was a professor talking, and 2) this conversation was held in 2010; I wasn't reading a book published in 1854.

Do I believe it is a wonderful idea to tap gamers' skills? absolutely. I, in fact, believe that this is tad late article and there should have been a movement to acknowledge gamers' skill and that it had to be put in use for good. Case and point: Falcon 4.0 and many other flight simulating games were/are already in use for the Air Force. Even better examples are how many game developing companies have active monitoring system to not only accommodate their opinions but to improve game playing experiences and other aspects.

I would like to comment, that although while it is profoundly popular within the game world, it is still limited at best when you discuss in real-world effect. Can any of you name some examples to help me?