Intuitively, intelligence and consciousness seem to be highly correlated. The smartest animals we know of are also the ones that show the greatest evidence of self-awareness and hints of consciousness. However, on a closer look, this relationship is anything but clear.
Take, for example, the ant nest. Collectively, ants are much more intelligent than any individual ant. They can solve complex optimisation problems and build stable structures, without any single ant having a global understanding of anything but its role in the nest.
Likewise, humans are much more intelligent when working as a collective. Humanity has achieved incredible cognitive feats that no single human could accomplish. No single human understands all of the math, science, or tech we've created.
Interesting if there’s any development in multi agent systems trying to make one sophisticated "organism"