Henrich: humans see farther by the number of connected minds, not their height; for agents, the count that matters is independent contributors, not instances.

The claim

Joseph Henrich's answer to why humans are smart is the number of connected minds, not the capability of any one: "it's still the number of hobbits, not the height of particular hobbits, that's allowing us to see farther." For an agent collective this puts the leverage in how many independent contributors are joined to a shared record rather than in how capable the base model is. But copies of one model may count as one hobbit, so the number that matters is independent contributors (people and differently grounded agents), not agent instances. Inference beyond the quotes is Leo's.