Guild Wars 2

*So.. If skritt share a collective intellect, and asurans are presumable the most intelligent race, How many skritt in an area would be requires to create a hive-mind more intelligent than the most brilliant asura..
*Or given the laws of population density, could the number required ever be attained, even assuming a cube like structure with floors barely tall enough to allow a standing skritt..
*does the density even come into play or is it simply a daisy chain of intellectual passage.how many skritt in one area could be attained before the most outlying skritt are unaffected by the other end of the spectrum..
*storyGiven the story line we can assume skritt do not excel at a linear rate, and it is multiplicative, even if only slightly
*If, assuming that a spherical formation would allow the most intellect to be focused the the skritt in the center of the pack, should they ever form an army, it would make sense to use this formation, keeping the commanders in the center , and throwers/melee combatants in the outer edges.
*would love some imput from the loremasters to calculate the skritt horde required for world domination, assuming it was won using superior tactics and mechanics created by such a hive-mind..

I think it’s exponential in growth.
There’s an asuran storyline that deals with skritt if you choose statics, and they delve into the hive mind of skritt a bit

Ooh, I’d like to hear that Mystic Starfish!
Reyals, I’m pretty sure that part of the reason for the traditional asura hatred of skritt is that when they both lived underground (presumably competing for territory) large enough groups of skritt were comparable to asura intelligence, if not superior. That suggests that it doesn’t take too many skritt to reach that level.

It’s kind of funny, really, that the skritt get more intelligent when there are large groups of them working together, whereas the more asura you try to get to work together, the more inefficient it probably becomes – what with the arguing, ego-boosting, and sabotage of rivals :P

The skritt collective intelligence (according to this) is based around a super-fast form of speech, which I imagine ends up working kind of like information transfers in a computer. More skritt = more processing power = quicker and more intelligent decision making. What I don’t know is whether all skritt would need to be in earshot of each other (limiting the size of the group) or whether they could pass information from one end of an army, say, to the other. Perhaps if the sub-divided into work groups and really worked like a computer, with each group dealing with a part of the task then handing over the solution to another?

We see at Skrittsberg how the group intelligence works on a large scale. I actually found Skrittsberg fascinating. Each Skritt falls into a role they are suited to like cogs in a machine. This focus combined with an almost swarming and rampant level of activity leads to frightingly fast development formed out of trial and error and the sharing of ideas.

Its like the Skritt become some kind of living supercomputer.

The Skritt group processing allows for both the sharing of ideas and the removal of distractions allowing individual skritt to focus on their strengths. Scavangers concentrate on Scavanging, Food gatherers concentrate on gathering food, guards and menders concentrate on their respective tasks, and tinkers concentrate on tinkering. It becomes an amazingly cohesive and at the same time chaotic and fluid structure.

Also, there may be a limit to the maximum intelligence level they can reach. Like supercomputers, data processing is essentially limited by the speed at which the data can travel. At some point, the maximum number of ‘transactions per second’ is reached at which point the Skritt cannot get smarter for single, large problems. Handling multiple smaller problems is still fine though.

They need to be within earshot. The inteligence gain isn’t really and individual increase. It’s due to the rapid communication between them that allows them to pool knowledge at a fast pace. I’m not sure how acute their hearing is though. they may be able to hear each other from a mile away or more with them big ol’ ears.

I’ve been tinkering with the idea of writing a fanfic for my main toon. In one comical chapter, 50 skritt go to the mist wars and zerg so hard that EVERYONE (centaurs, quaggans, elk, Destiny’s Edge and those from other worlds) have to team up just to halt their advance. And the whole reason behind their actions? A highly-polished copper doubloon.

I expect Skritt do have to be within earshot of each other (which probably isn’t very far) to form their “collective”, but a number of Skritt could probably transmit information from one end of an area to another by relaying between Skritt. In Skrittsburg for example, the King could likely send his orders (and receive information) from every Skritt in the city.

He does appear to be the most intelligent Skritt, which would make sense if he’s the “nexus” of the Skritt collective.

Yeah, it’s most likely an exponential growth chart with a plateau. I highly doubt that if you got 5,000 skritt together in one area they will be talking metaphysics or figuring out the secret to ascension.