Integrated information and are groups consious?

Do groups posess consciousness? It might seem an interesting question from a philosophical point of view but how do we approach this question from a scientific angle?

In a paper I authored together with Tom Malone during my PostDoc at MIT we investigated this idea. The basic premise is that integrated information theory(IIT) offers a framework for calculating a metric that is correlated to the level of consciouness in a system. We applied this metric to in-person teams, wikipedia discussions and internet traffic patterns.

I’ve added a summary of the ideas and results of the paper to the publications section. You can also download and read the pdf.