8881 GP Specimen Paper 2 Insert (JPJC WA1 2026)

This document consists of 4 printed pages. © UCLES & MOE 2021 [Turn over MINISTRY OF EDUCATION, SINGAPORE in collaboration with CAMBRIDGE ASSESSMENT INTERNATIONAL EDUCATION General Certificate of Education Advanced Level Higher 1 GENERAL PAPER 8881/02 Paper 2 For examination from 2024 SPECIMEN INSERT 1 hour 30 minutes READ THESE INSTRUCTIONS FIRST This Insert contains the passages for comprehension.

2 8881/02/SI/24© UCLES & MOE 2021 Passage 1. An author explores the possible benefits of collecting personal data. 1 2 3 4 5 A single ant or bee isn’t smart, but their colonies are. The study of swarm intelligence is providing insights that can help us create complex management systems, from the routing of delivery vehicles to the controlling of groups of robots or containing the spread of epidemics. Swarm intelligence is defined as the collective behaviour of decentralised, self-organised systems. The agents in these systems interact randomly and their interactions contribute to the emergence of ‘intelligent’ communal behaviour. A colony can solve problems that are far beyond the abilities of a single ant. These include problems of survival such as defending the colony or discovering the best route to a food source. There is no single decision-maker: each ant adjusts its behaviour based on countless interactions with others in its community. Keen to harness the power of swarm intelligence, academics have been investigating possible human applications of this natural phenomenon. After many studies, they have concluded that people are smart but groups are even smarter. Each one of us has a massive internalised database of contextual information about our world, having deep instincts and intuition about everything from patient health to economic conditions. However, human groups often have a difficult time reaching optimised decisions, getting bogged down when individuals get entrenched in their positions. ‘Human swarming’ has been shown to enable groups to reach optimised decisions, prioritisations, and forecasts in significantly less time than traditional methods. Just like biological swarms, groups of people outperform their individual members and achieve optimal outcomes. Using the power of connection for the various purposes of survival, as demonstrated through bee pheromones or whales singing to one another, is not just something limited to the animal kingdom. Anyone who has an online presence or a mobile phone connected to the internet is continuously receiving information and broadcasting their personal data. This data might be their current physical location or choices of goods and services ordered and consumed. Some of this data is freely offered by the user and the rest is gathered as a matter of course in the non-stop stream between the service provider and user. Take the scenario of thousands of passengers gathered and stationary in one location due to a broken-down train breaking down: instantly and automatically,