Collective Intelligence

Here in this magazine we've talked a lot about the zoo community. What is is, what it should be, what it was, what we hope it might become in the future. I think it's interesting to talk about. It's kinda like blacksmithing. You get a chunk of metal really hot, and you can hammer it into any shape you want it to be. That's us right now. We're a huge, scalding hot lump of metal, ready to be molded into something new. 
 
 
Sometimes though, I worry that I personally have way too much control over the way that the hammer moves. I really love writing this magazine, I love being on Zooier Than Thou, I love running a zoo space and having such a big impact on this community. Doing this genuinely gives my life so much meaning. And that's great and cool and all, but I don't think that should give me the ability to talk over anyone else who's part of this community as well. 
 
 
We are an extremely diverse group of people. We've got zoos in the community from every walk of life, from a ton of different countries, on different continents. It's an amazing bunch of people who all have their own thoughts and opinions on the big zoo questions. What it means to be a zoo, how best to put out our message, the things we can do to make the world a better place for animals. 
 
 
I think that's something that's a huge strength for us. I'm a big believer in the idea of collective intelligence. It's a term you'll hear a lot when people talk about prediction markets, which are bad but the idea behind them is very interesting. Collective intelligence is the idea that the more people that you have who give their opinions on an question, the more likely you are to get the best possible answer to that question just due to the fact that you're removing individual bias and gathering many potential solutions. 
 
 
There are even some examples of this working incredibly well. There's a famous historical example of people trying to guess the weight of an ox at a fair. There were a wide variety of guesses, some of them being closer, and others being totally off. But, when the person running the event tallied up all the guesses, the average was only 1 pound off of the actual weight. Or, as a more structured example there's the case of Foldit. The University of Washington was trying to figure out how certain protein structures were formed, and after years and years of trying, they decided to make a game where you attempted to solve the problem and share that game on the internet. It was solved in 10 days, after scientists were working on it for decades. Or there's the case of the USS Scorpion, a military submarine that sunk in the 60s. People weren't sure where to even start looking for this thing, so they ended up getting a bunch of mathematicians who all placed bets on where they thought was the most likely place that the sub crashed with the information they had. While all the guesses were different, the average once again was only a couple hundred yards from where the wreck of the sub was actually found. 
 
 
There are SO many examples of this, and to me it honestly feels a little bit like magic. Like, it's amazing that there's this real, tangible way that we can all work together to have a better outcome than if any one person did things on their own. We might not all be experts at everything, but we have the ability to come together to solve problems that might not even feel solvable to any specific individual. It's obvious, but we are better collectively than individually.
 
 
Which is why I'm concerned. Right now, I don't think that the voices and opinions of most zoos are actually being represented anywhere. I certainly yap a lot, and there are the people on ZooTT who do some yapping as well. But if someone was to take a heat map and plot out how much any individual made up what the "zoo community" was saying, I think I'd have way too high of a percentage on that. At least, for my liking. 
 
 
I want more people to have voices, and to talk about the things that matter to them. Not just because I'm tired of talking, because trust me I will never get tired of talking, but because I think that in a pure objective sense, the more people that are a part of this conversation, the more likely we are to succeed. It's awesome having people around in the zoo community hanging out and discovering themselves and making friends. I'm very happy that that's a thing that's happening. But that's different from people who are actively trying to grow the community or make change or create things. And that's the thing about collective intelligence. It's not like a bunch of people who are in a room together are going to spontaneously solve problems. It comes from trying to solve the problems together. From having everyone give their opinions and try things and do whatever they can. 
 
 
The whole point of this magazine has always been to give people a chance to voice their thoughts to the community at large. Not everyone wants to write a full article, and that’s completely fine. Everyone has their own ways of communicating. But if you’re someone who wants to see this community become something better, then being part of the conversation matters. No matter who you are or what you bring, every voice counts. The only way we get the future we want is by building it together.
 
 
If you have the time and energy, make something. Videos, podcasts, art, stories, activism — whatever you want. There is real hunger for more content that comes from actual zoos who have something they want to say. And if creating something feels like too much right now, then just show up in the conversations. Ask questions. Bring ideas. Help the community figure out what the next course of action could look like. Forward momentum only comes from the people with the aspirations to change things. No big project exists without the people that support its existence. And, no project would exist without individuals deciding to create it. 
 
Right now the community is mostly ears, and only a handful of mouths are doing the speaking. People are waiting to hear something, but a single voice only travels so far.
Please don’t let me keep hogging the spotlight. You all deserve it just as much.
 
 
 
 
 
Article written by Tarro (August 2026) 
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