Question: The particle swarm approach was developed with an inspiration in the collective behavior of animals, such as flocks of birds, and can also be viewed as a sociocognitive theory of knowledge. In this case sociocognition refers to those qualities of thought about social beings and objects with their own features and in relation to others. In the particular case of human beings, it suggests that in order for us to become intelligent we need to interact with other humans. Using the authors own words:
"In order for a brain to become mental, it needs to have interaction with other minds. A fetal brain grown to adulthood in a vat containing nutritious fluids would never acquire the qualities of mind. If it were transplanted into a Frankesteinian body, it would be unable to reason, remember, categorize, communicate, or do any of the other things that a minimal mind should be able to. Feral humans, that is, humans who have grown up in the wild, have never been known to show signs of having anything like a mind - it is not sufficient to have perceptual stimuli; social ones are necessary. The relation between mind and society is unquestionable ... ." (Kennedy et al., 2001; p. 118)
According to the authors, for a healthy human brain to develop into a mind, it has to become conscious and learn to think. These are some minimum requirements for something to be called a mind. To what extent do you believe that the interactions with other beings are important for the development of our intelligence and mind? There are known examples of human beings who were born in the wild and raised by wolves or monkeys and lately brought into towns. What happened to these human beings? Were they ever capable of adapting to social life and develop several basic skills such as eating with knifes? Could they ever fall in love?