how do animals work together? (how do humans work together?)

I went whale watching recently and we came across a super pod of dolphins. We sped across the water in our speedboat to create a wave, and watched hundreds of dolphins rush to come play.

Our guide told us it was the biggest pod of dolphins he had witnessed in 20 years as a captain.

It got me thinking: how do the dolphins stay together as they move across the ocean? Who’s in charge?

I’m fascinated by the collective intelligence of animals.

Sometimes I think about humanity the same way. Who’s in charge of us? A president has a bit of power, sure. But the vast majority of our daily lives are out of the purview of anyone in particular. How did we build New York City or create modern English? Humans collectively create these things and only after the fact do we create official governing bodies to try to maintain some semblance of Order and Structure.

The negative personification of collective intelligence (or lack thereof) is “Moloch”. I want a friendly, lovable positive personification of collective intelligence.