Considering the current advancements in biometric sensors and other related technologies, as well as the use of bio-inspired models for AI improvements, we can infer that the swarm intelligence paradigm can be implemented in human daily spheres through the connectivity between user gadgets connected to the Internet of Things. This is a first step towards a real Ambient Intelligence, but also of a Global Intelligence. This unconscious (by the user) connectivity may alter the way by which we feel the world. Besides, with the arrival of new augmented ways of capturing and providing information or radical new ways of expanding our bodies (through synthetic biology or artificial prosthesis like brain-computer connections), we can be very close to a change which may radically affect our experience of ourselves and of the feeling of collectivity. We call it the techno-phenomenological turn. We show social implications, present challenges, and and open questions for the new kind of swarm intelligence-enhanced society, and provide the taxonomy of the field of study. We will also explore the possible roadmaps of this next possible situation.Keywords: Techno-phenomenological turn, consciousness; neuro-interface; radio-transmission; wireless communication; internet of everything; social development
Swarm Intelligence and Systems IntersectionsSwarm intelligence (SI) is a concept which describes how complex social behaviours can come from simple non-coordinated individual actions. Ants/bees/termites/wasps colonies, for example, follow this kind of self-organizing and collective intelligence [1]. While no single member of the colony has the power or skills to make decisions about general coordinated actions, the colony behaviour is finally organized efficiently following basic rules. This natural and simple algorithmic behaviour has proven to be so successful that it has inspired AI experts for decades in the attempt to implement similar mechanisms into robot interactions or AI systems, creating a research field called computational swarm intelligence (CSI) [2]. However, we can also find SI activity among humans [3,4], and with the evolution towards a society of information, we can also talk about an SI implemented into the Internet of Things (IoT) [5][6][7]. Therefore, we can see that bioinspiration is a successful trend in AI research and that SI provides a reliable framework for the generation and modulation of social behaviours, even at computational and electronically-connected levels. Taking into account the increment of available smart materials and the technological possibilities of the augmenting/upgrading/enhancing of human bodies, we suggest a future scenario in which SI is part of human behaviour, managing not only unconscious but also conscious actions.