we don't know what intelligence is, what consciousness is. this is freely admitted by many researchers. and the rest demonstrate it by putting forth, with great conviction, entirely conflicting definitions and models. i find AI thought leaders like to be terrific at PR and lousy at prediction or anything other than trivial and derivative insights. specifically Ray Kurzweil, Jeff Hawkins, etc.

so not knowing what intelligence is, makes it tricky to create it. except as you point out, the hive will do it for us. as you, i see Wikipedia (etc) as a form of new intelligence – much more powerful and accurate and useful than the group intelligence of The Market – which actually seems quite stupid. but Wikipedia and The Market etc are nothing compared to what will come – and likely from the least expected place.

do you know the Einstein (i think but can't find it now) quote about how to create life? something like – mix hydrogen and gravity and wait 14 billion years…