Minds and Cultures: Particle Swarm Implications For Beings in Sociocognitive Space

Abstract

Particle swarm theory suggests that both minds and cultures are effects of local social interaction. This paper proposes a social-psychological view of intelligence as immerging from culture, which emerges from social interaction. A framework for the depiction of mental states is presented, and the optimizing effect of social interaction is demonstrated. Simulated beings called eleMentals are shown to be able to find optimal regions in their NK-landscape minds through an algorithm com prising two terms: a "Law of Effect" term that represents reinforcement learning, or learning from experience, and a social influence term. The model is consistent with social-psychological data and theory, and the results support a hypothesis that human sociality may be in part responsible for human intelligence.