Global brain: Difference between revisions
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{{Short description|Futuristic concept of a global interconnected network}}[[File:Internet map 1024.jpg|thumb|300px|[[Opte Project]] visualization of [[routing|routing path]]s through a portion of the Internet. The connections and pathways of the internet could be seen as the pathways of [[neurons]] and [[synapse]]s in a global brain.]] |
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The '''Global Brain''' is a metaphor for the intelligent network formed by humans together with the knowledge and communication technologies that connect them. |
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The '''global brain''' is a neuroscience-inspired and futurological vision of the planetary [[information and communications technology]] [[computer network|network]] that interconnects all [[Human|humans]] and their technological artifacts.<ref>{{cite web|last1=Heylighen|first1=F.|title=What is the global brain?|url=http://pespmc1.vub.ac.be/GBRAIFAQ.html|website=Principa Cybernetica Web|access-date=9 November 2017}}</ref> As this network stores ever more [[information]], takes over ever more functions of coordination and communication from traditional organizations, and becomes increasingly [[intelligent]], it increasingly plays the role of a [[brain]] for the planet [[Earth]]. In the [[philosophy of mind]], global brain finds an analog in [[Averroes|Averroes's]] [[Averroes's theory of the unity of the intellect|theory of the unity of the intellect]]. |
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==Basic ideas== |
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The term was first coined in 1982 by [[Peter Russell]] in his book ''The Global Brain''. The first peer-reviewed article on the subject was written by Mayer-Kress and Barczys in 1995 |
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Proponents of the global brain hypothesis claim that the [[Internet]] increasingly ties its users together into a single information processing system that functions as part of the collective [[nervous system]] of the planet. The intelligence of this network is [[collective intelligence|collective]] or [[distributed cognition|distributed]]: it is not centralized or localized in any particular individual, organization or computer system. Therefore, no one can command or control it. Rather, it [[self-organization|self-organizes]] or [[emergence|emerges]] from the [[dynamic network analysis|dynamic network]]s of [[human–computer interaction|interactions]] between its components. This is a property typical of [[complex adaptive systems]].<ref name=CAS-T-17/> |
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The [[World Wide Web]] in particular resembles the organization of a brain with its [[web page]]s (playing a role similar to [[neurons]]) connected by [[hyperlinks]] (playing a role similar to [[synapses]]), together forming an [[Association (psychology)|associative]] network along which information propagates.<ref name="pespmc1.vub.ac.be">{{cite conference | author-link1 = Francis Heylighen | last1 = Heylighen | first1 = Francis | last2 = Bollen | first2 = J. | date = 1996 | title = The World-Wide Web as a Super-Brain: from metaphor to model | editor-first = R. | editor-last = Trappl | conference = Cybernetics and Systems' 96 | publisher = Austrian Society For Cybernetics | url = http://pespmc1.vub.ac.be/papers/WWW-Super-Brain.pdf | access-date = 2012-07-22 | archive-date = 2016-03-04 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20160304113729/http://pespmc1.vub.ac.be/papers/WWW-Super-Brain.pdf }}</ref> This analogy becomes stronger with the rise of [[social media]], such as [[Facebook]], where links between personal pages represent relationships in a [[social network]] along which information propagates from person to person.<ref>{{cite journal | last = Weinbaum | first = D. | date = 2012 | title = A Framework for Scalable Cognition: Propagation of challenges, towards the implementation of Global Brain models | publisher = GBI working paper 2012-02 | url = http://pespmc1.vub.ac.be/ECCO/ECCO-Papers/Weaver-Attention.pdf | access-date = 2012-07-22 | archive-date = 2016-03-04 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20160304002509/http://pespmc1.vub.ac.be/ECCO/ECCO-Papers/Weaver-Attention.pdf }}</ref> |
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[[Francis Heylighen]], who contributed much to the development of the concept, distinguished (in (Heylighen 2005)) three main aspects of the global brain metaphor. These are the ''organicism'', ''encyclopedism'' and ''emergentism'' aspects. |
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Such propagation is similar to the [[spreading activation]] that [[neural networks]] in the brain use to process information in a parallel, distributed manner. |
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==History== |
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== Organicism aspect == |
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Although some of the underlying ideas were already expressed by [[Nikola Tesla]] in the late 19th century and were written about by many others before him, the term "global brain" was coined in 1982 by Peter Russell in his book ''The Global Brain''.<ref>{{cite book | last = Russell | first = P. | date = 1983 | title = The Global Brain: speculations on the evolutionary leap to planetary consciousness | location = Los Angeles | publisher = JP Tarcher }}</ref> How the Internet might be developed to achieve this was set out in 1986.<ref>{{cite journal | last = Andrews | first = D. | date = February 1986 | title = Information routeing groups – Towards the global superbrain: or how to find out what you need to know rather than what you think you need to know | journal = Journal of Information Technology | volume = 1 | issue = 1 | pages = 22–35 | doi=10.1057/jit.1986.5| s2cid = 29171232 }}</ref> The first peer-reviewed article on the subject was published by [[Gottfried Mayer-Kress]] in 1995,<ref>{{cite journal | last1 = Mayer-Kress | first1 = G. | last2 = Barczys | first2 = C. | date = 1995 | title = The global brain as an emergent structure from the Worldwide Computing Network, and its implications for modeling | journal = The Information Society | volume = 11 | issue = 1 | pages = 1–27 | url = http://www.ccsr.uiuc.edu/web/Techreports/1990-94/CCSR-94-22.pdf | doi = 10.1080/01972243.1995.9960177 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20120907044231/http://www.ccsr.uiuc.edu/web/Techreports/1990-94/CCSR-94-22.pdf | archive-date = 2012-09-07 }}</ref> while the first [[algorithms]] that could turn the world-wide web into a collectively intelligent network were proposed by [[Francis Heylighen]] and [[Johan Bollen]] in 1996.<ref name="pespmc1.vub.ac.be"/><ref>{{cite conference | last1 = Bollen | first1 = J. | author-link2 = Francis Heylighen | last2 = Heylighen | first2 = Francis | date = 1996 | title = Algorithms for the self-organization of distributed, multi-user networks. Possible application to the future world wide web | editor-first = R. | editor-last = Trappl | conference = Cybernetics and Systems '96 | pages = 911–916 | publisher = Austrian Society For Cybernetics | url = http://pespmc1.vub.ac.be/papers/AlgorithmsWeb.pdf | access-date = 2012-07-22 | archive-date = 2017-08-09 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20170809023424/http://pespmc1.vub.ac.be/Papers/AlgorithmsWeb.pdf }}</ref> |
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{{Main|superorganism}} |
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This approach sees our planet or our society as a living system. This view can be dated back to 1159 with [[John of Salisbury]]. In his treatise of political science the ''[[Policraticus]]'' he compares society to a creature. Each social class plays a role attributed by God: the king is the head, the Church is the soul, the judges and governors are the eyes and the ears, soldiers the hands and farmers the feets. [[Thomas Hobbes]] also compared society to the marin monster, the Leviathan in his famous piece of work bearing the same name. However, it is [[Herbert Spencer]] who studied in most details this analogy in his monumental Principles of Sociology. |
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[[Gregory Stock]] proposed in 1993 a modern vision of superorganism formed by humans and machines, which he calls "Metaman". The [[Gaia hypothesis]] envisioned by [[James Lovelock]] in 1986 also sees the Earth as a living organism. |
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In this organic metaphor, the analogue of the nervous system is thus the global brain. The exchanges of informations on Earth are processing at a high rate and speed, similarly as the functioning of a nervous system. |
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Reviewing the strands of intellectual history that contributed to the global brain hypothesis, [[Francis Heylighen]] distinguishes four perspectives: ''organicism'', ''encyclopedism'', ''emergentism'' and ''evolutionary cybernetics''. He asserts that these developed in relative independence but now are converging in his own scientific re-formulation.<ref name="Conceptions of a Global Brain">{{cite book | author-link1 = Francis Heylighen | last1 = Heylighen | first1 = Francis | date = 2011 | chapter-url = http://pcp.vub.ac.be/papers/GB-conceptions-Rodrigue.pdf | chapter = Conceptions of a Global Brain: an historical review | title = Evolution: Cosmic, Biological, and Social | editor1-last = Grinin | editor1-first = L. E. | editor2-last = Carneiro | editor2-first = R. L. | editor3-last = Korotayev | editor3-first = A. V. | editor4-last = Spier | editor4-first = F. | publisher = Uchitel Publishing | pages = 274–289 | access-date = 2012-05-16 | archive-date = 2016-04-17 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20160417155401/http://pcp.vub.ac.be/papers/GB-conceptions-Rodrigue.pdf }}</ref> |
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== Encyclopedism aspect == |
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=== Organicism === |
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In the encylopedism aspect, the emphasis is in developping a network of universal knowledge. The first encyclopedic endeavour was attempted by the [[Encyclopédie]] of Diderot and d'Alembert. However, at the end of the 19th century, the amount of knowledge was too important to be published in one single synthetic piece of work. To tackle this problem, [[Paul Otlet]] founded the [[documentation]] science, now called [[information science]]. [[H. G. Wells]] also proposed the idea of a world encyclopedia, or [[World Brain]]. Nowadays this dream of an universal encyclopeadia seems to become a reality with [[Wikipedia]]. |
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In the 19th century, the sociologist [[Herbert Spencer]] saw society as a [[social organism]] and reflected about its need for a nervous system. Entomologist [[William Morton Wheeler|William Wheeler]] developed the concept of the ant colony as a spatially extended organism, and in the 1930s he coined the term [[superorganism]] to describe such an entity.<ref>{{cite journal | author-link = William Morton Wheeler | last = Wheeler | first = William | date = 1911 | title = The Ant Colony as an Organism | journal = Journal of Morphology | volume = 22 | issue = 2 | pages = 307–325 | doi=10.1002/jmor.1050220206| s2cid = 85810040 | url = https://zenodo.org/record/1427665 }}</ref> This concept was later adopted by thinkers such as [[Joël de Rosnay]] in the book {{lang|fr|Le Cerveau Planétaire}} (1986) and [[Gregory Stock]] in the book ''[[Metaman]]'' (1993) to describe planetary society as a superorganism. |
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It is also noteworthy that [[Tim Berners-Lee]], the inventor of the web, was inspired by the free associative possibilities of the brain for his invention. The brain can link different kinds of information without any apparent link otherwise; Lee thought that computers could become much more powerful if they could imitate this functioning, i.e. make links between any arbitrary piece of information. (Berners-Lee 1999, p4 and p41). |
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The mental aspects of such an organic system at the planetary level were perhaps first broadly elaborated by palaeontologist and Jesuit priest [[Pierre Teilhard de Chardin]]. In 1945, he described a coming "planetisation" of humanity, which he saw as the next phase of accelerating human "socialisation". Teilhard described both socialization and planetization as irreversible, irresistible processes of ''macrobiological development'' culminating in the emergence of a [[noosphere]], or global mind (see Emergentism below).<ref>{{cite book | author-link = Pierre Teilhard de Chardin | last = Teilhard de Chardin | first = Pierre | date = 1964 | title = The Future of Man | url = https://archive.org/details/futureofman00teil | url-access = registration | chapter = Chap VII – The Planetisation of Man }}</ref> |
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The more recent [[living systems theory]] describes both organisms and social systems in terms of the "critical subsystems" ("organs") they need to contain in order to survive, such as an internal transport system, a resource reserve, and a decision-making system. This theory has inspired several thinkers, including Peter Russell and Francis Heylighen to define the global brain as the network of information processing subsystems for the planetary social system. |
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== Emergentism aspect == |
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=== Encyclopedism === |
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This approach focuses on more spiritual and speculative aspects of the global brain. The global brain is here seen as a higer level of evolution [[Pierre Teilhard de Chardin]] in his [[Phenomenon of Man]] made a remarkable synthesis of science and religion and had a vision of evolution towards more complexity and consciousness. He anticipated a new level of consciousness, a network of thoughts which he called the ''[[noosphere]]''. This can be interpreted as a very impressive anticipation of internet and the web. Peter Russell also emphasised the spiritual dimension that everyone should strive for, in order to achieve a greater synergy in the superorganism. |
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{{main|Encyclopedism}} |
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In the perspective of encyclopedism, the emphasis is on developing a universal knowledge network. The first systematic attempt to create such an integrated system of the world's knowledge was the 18th century ''[[Encyclopédie]]'' of [[Denis Diderot]] and [[Jean le Rond d'Alembert]]. However, by the end of the 19th century, the amount of knowledge had become too large to be published in a single synthetic volume. To tackle this problem, [[Paul Otlet]] founded the science of documentation, now called [[information science]]. In the 1930s he envisaged a [[World Wide Web]]-like system of associations between documents and telecommunication links that would make all the world's knowledge available immediately to anybody. [[H. G. Wells]] proposed a similar vision of a collaboratively developed world encyclopedia that would be constantly updated by a global university-like institution. He called this a [[World Brain]],<ref>{{cite book| author=H.G. Wells | title=[[World Brain]]}}</ref> as it would function as a continuously updated memory for the planet, although the image of humanity acting informally as a more organic global brain is a recurring motif in many of his other works.<ref>{{cite book| author=H.G. Wells | title=The New Machiavelli| url=https://archive.org/details/thenewmachiavell01047gut | quote="But the ideas marched on, the ideas marched on, just as though men's brains were no more than stepping-stones, just as though some great brain in which we are all little cells and corpuscles was thinking them! ... And then I came back as if I came back to a refrain; — the ideas go on — as though we are all no more than little cells and corpuscles in some great brain beyond our understanding...."}}</ref> |
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[[Tim Berners-Lee]], the inventor of the [[World Wide Web]], too, was inspired by the free-associative possibilities of the brain for his invention. The brain can link different kinds of information without any apparent link otherwise; Berners-Lee thought that computers could become much more powerful if they could imitate this functioning, i.e. make links between any arbitrary piece of information.<ref>{{harv|Berners-Lee|1999|pp=4, 41}}</ref> The most powerful implementation of encyclopedism to date is [[Wikipedia]], which integrates the associative powers of the world-wide-web with the collective intelligence of its millions of contributors, approaching the ideal of a global memory.<ref name="Conceptions of a Global Brain"/> The [[Semantic web]], also first proposed by Berners-Lee, is a system of protocols to make the pieces of knowledge and their links readable by machines, so that they could be used to make automatic [[inference]]s, thus providing this brain-like network with some capacity for autonomous "thinking" or reflection. |
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The emergence of a higher order system in evolution may be called a "[[metasystem transition]]" (a concept introduced by [[Valentin Turchin]]) or a "major evolutionary transition" (see Szathmary and [[John Maynard Smith]], Nature, [[16 March]] [[1995]]) . |
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== |
=== Emergentism === |
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This approach focuses on the emergent aspects of the evolution and development of [[complexity]], including the spiritual, psychological, and moral-ethical aspects of the global brain, and is at present the most speculative approach. The global brain is here seen as a natural and emergent process of planetary evolutionary development. Here again [[Pierre Teilhard de Chardin]] attempted a synthesis of science, social values, and religion in his [[The Phenomenon of Man]], which argues that the ''[[Telos (philosophy)|telos]]'' (drive, purpose) of universal evolutionary process is the development of greater levels of both complexity and consciousness. Teilhard proposed that if life persists then planetization, as a biological process producing a global brain, would necessarily also produce a global mind, a new level of planetary consciousness and a technologically supported network of thoughts which he called the ''[[noosphere]]''. Teilhard's proposed technological layer for the noosphere can be interpreted as an early anticipation of the Internet and the Web.<ref>{{cite book | author-link = Pierre Teilhard de Chardin | last = Teilhard de Chardin | first = Pierre | date = 1964 | title = The Future of Man | url = https://archive.org/details/futureofman00teil | url-access = registration | chapter = Chap X – The Formation of the Noosphere }}</ref> |
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===Evolutionary cybernetics=== |
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*[[Gaia hypothesis]] |
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[[Systems theory|Systems theorists]] and [[cyberneticians]] commonly describe the emergence of a higher order system in evolutionary development as a "[[metasystem transition]]" (a concept introduced by [[Valentin Turchin]]) or a "major evolutionary transition".<ref>{{cite journal | title = The major evolutionary transitions | author-link1 = Eörs Szathmáry | first1 = Eörs | last1 = Szathmáry | author-link2 = John Maynard Smith | first2 = John | last2 = Maynard Smith | journal = [[Nature (journal)|Nature]] | volume = 374 | issue = 6519 | pages = 227–232 | date = 16 March 1995 | doi = 10.1038/374227a0 | pmid=7885442| bibcode = 1995Natur.374..227S | s2cid = 4315120 }}</ref> Such a metasystem consists of a group of subsystems that work together in a coordinated, goal-directed manner. It is as such much more powerful and intelligent than its constituent systems. [[Francis Heylighen]] has argued that the global brain is an emerging metasystem with respect to the level of individual human intelligence, and investigated the specific evolutionary mechanisms that promote this transition.{{sfn|Heylighen|2007}} |
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*[[Metaman]] ([[Gregory Stock]]) |
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*[[Noosphere]] ([[Teilhard de Chardin]]) |
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*[[Social organism]] |
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*[[Superorganism]] |
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*[[World Brain]] ([[H. G. Wells]]) |
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*[[Management_cybernetics]] |
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In this scenario, the Internet fulfils the role of the network of "nerves" that interconnect the subsystems and thus coordinates their activity. The cybernetic approach makes it possible to develop mathematical models and simulations of the processes of [[self-organization]] through which such coordination and [[collective intelligence]] emerges. |
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== External links == |
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== Recent developments == |
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* The Global Brain FAQ.[http://pespmc1.vub.ac.be/GBRAIFAQ.html] |
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In 1994 [[Kevin Kelly (editor)|Kevin Kelly]], in his popular book ''[[Out of Control: The New Biology of Machines, Social Systems, and the Economic World|Out of Control]]'', posited the emergence of a "[[Collective consciousness|hive mind]]" from a discussion of cybernetics and evolutionary biology.<ref name=ooc>{{Cite book| publisher = Addison-Wesley| isbn = 978-0-201-57793-8| author-link = Kevin Kelly (editor)| last = Kelly| first = Kevin| title = Out of control: The Rise of Neo-Biological Civilization| location = Reading, Mass| date = 1994| pages = [https://archive.org/details/outofcontrolrise00kell/page/5 5–28]| title-link = Out of Control: The New Biology of Machines, Social Systems, and the Economic World}}</ref> |
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* Peter Russell's [http://www.peterussell.com/index2.html website] |
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* Global Brain mailing list (subscription moderated). [http://pespmc1.vub.ac.be/GBRAISUB.html] |
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*[http://www.worldservice.org/issues/febmar97/worldlawnow.html The World Syntegrity Project] |
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In 1996, [[Francis Heylighen]] and [[Ben Goertzel]] founded the Global Brain group, a discussion forum grouping most of the researchers that had been working on the subject of the global brain to further investigate this phenomenon. The group organized the first international conference on the topic in 2001 at the [[Vrije Universiteit Brussel]]. |
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== Bibliography == |
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After a period of relative neglect, the Global Brain idea has recently seen a resurgence in interest, in part due to talks given on the topic by [[Tim O'Reilly]], the Internet forecaster who popularized the term [[Web 2.0]],<ref>{{cite video | author-link = Tim O'Reilly | first = Tim | last = O'Reilly | url = http://www.greenbiz.com/video/2012/03/22/towards-global-brain?ms=42144 | title = Towards a Global Brain | series = One Great Idea | date = March 2012 }}</ref> and [[Yuri Milner]], the social media investor.<ref>{{cite web | first = Chrystia | last = Freeland | website = blogs.reuters.com | url = http://blogs.reuters.com/chrystia-freeland/2011/09/23/the-advent-of-the-global-brain/ | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20110926195749/http://blogs.reuters.com/chrystia-freeland/2011/09/23/the-advent-of-the-global-brain/ | archive-date = 2011-09-26 | title = The advent of the global brain | date = 2011-09-23 }}</ref> In January 2012, the Global Brain Institute (GBI) was founded at the [[Vrije Universiteit Brussel]] to develop a mathematical theory of the "brainlike" propagation of information across the Internet. In the same year, [[Thomas W. Malone]] and collaborators from the [[MIT Center for Collective Intelligence]] have started to explore how the global brain could be "programmed" to work more effectively,<ref>{{cite journal | last1 = Bernstein | first1 = A. | last2 = Klein | first2 = M. | author-link3 = Thomas W. Malone | last3 = Malone | first3 = Thomas W. | date = 2012 | title = Programming the Global Brain | journal = Communications of the ACM | volume = 55 | issue = 5 | page = 41 | url = http://cci.mit.edu/publications/CCIwp2011-04.pdf | doi = 10.1145/2160718.2160731 | hdl = 1721.1/75216 | s2cid = 9288529 | access-date = 2012-08-27 | archive-date = 2012-08-13 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20120813004006/http://cci.mit.edu/publications/CCIwp2011-04.pdf }}</ref> using mechanisms of [[collective intelligence]]. The complexity scientist [[Dirk Helbing]] and his NervousNet group have recently started developing a "Planetary Nervous System", which includes a "Global Participatory Platform", as part of the large-scale [[FuturICT]] project, thus preparing some of the groundwork for a Global Brain.<ref>{{cite book | author-link1 = Dirk Helbing | last1 = Helbing | first1 = Dirk | title = Thinking Ahead - Essays on Big Data, Digital Revolution, and Participatory Market Society | date = 2015 | chapter = Creating ("Making") a Planetary Nervous System as Citizen Web | pages = 189–194 | publisher = Springer International Publishing | doi = 10.1007/978-3-319-15078-9_13 | isbn = 978-3-319-15077-2 }}</ref> |
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'''Wide audience''' |
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In July 2017, [[Elon Musk]] founded the company [[Neuralink]], which aims to create a [[Brain computer interface|brain-computer interface (BCI)]] with significantly greater [[information bandwidth]] than traditional [[human interface devices]]. Musk predicts that [[Artificial intelligence|artificial intelligence systems]] will rapidly outpace human abilities in most domains and views them as an existential threat. He believes an advanced BCI would enable human cognition to remain relevant for longer. The firm raised $27m from 12 Investors in 2017.<ref>{{Cite news |last=da Silva |first=Chantal |author-link=Chantal Da Silva |date=2017-08-28 |title=Elon Musk could be about to spend $100m linking human brains to computers |language=en-GB |work=The Independent |url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/elon-musk-neuralink-brain-computer-startup-a7916891.html |access-date=2017-11-07}}</ref> |
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*P. Russell 1982': "The Global Brain Awakens" (emphasis on philosophy and consciousness) |
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*G. Stock: "Metaman" (social and economic evolution) |
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*J. de Rosnay: "The Symbiotic Man" (new sciences and technologies). |
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==Criticisms== |
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'''Advanced litterature''' |
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A common criticism of the idea that humanity would become directed by a global brain is that this would reduce individual diversity and freedom,<ref>{{cite journal | last = Rayward | first = W. B. | date = 1999 | title = H. G. Wells' s idea of a World Brain: A critical reassessment | journal = Journal of the American Society for Information Science | volume = 50 | issue = 7 | pages = 557–573 | citeseerx = 10.1.1.85.1010 | doi=10.1002/(sici)1097-4571(1999)50:7<557::aid-asi2>3.0.co;2-m}}</ref> and lead to [[mass surveillance]].<ref>{{cite journal | last = Brooks | first = M. | date = June 24, 2000 | url = http://www.nettime.org/Lists-Archives/nettime-l-0006/msg00182.html | title = Global brain | journal = New Scientist | issue = 2244 | page = 22 }}</ref> This criticism is inspired by [[totalitarianism|totalitarian]] forms of government, as exemplified by [[George Orwell]]'s character of "[[Big Brother (Nineteen Eighty-Four)|Big Brother]]". It is also inspired by the analogy between collective intelligence or [[swarm intelligence]] and [[insect societies]], such as beehives and ant colonies, in which individuals are essentially interchangeable. In a more extreme view, the global brain has been compared with the [[Borg (Star Trek)|Borg]],<ref>{{cite book | last = Goertzel | first = Ben | date = 2002 | title = Creating Internet Intelligence: Wild computing, distributed digital consciousness, and the emerging global brain | publisher = Kluwer Academic/Plenum Publishers | url = {{google books|id=Vnzb-xLdvv8C|plainurl=yes}} | isbn = 978-0-306-46735-6 }}</ref> a race of collectively thinking cyborgs conceived by the ''[[Star Trek]]'' science fiction franchise. |
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* See references about the Global Brain [[http://pespmc1.vub.ac.be/GBRAINREF.html]] |
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Global brain theorists reply that the emergence of distributed intelligence would lead to the exact opposite of this vision.<ref>{{cite journal | author-link = Francis Heylighen | last = Heylighen | first = Francis | date = 2007 | title = The Global Superorganism: an evolutionary-cybernetic model of the emerging network society | journal = Social Evolution & History | volume = 6 | issue = 1 | pages = 58–119 | url = http://pespmc1.vub.ac.be/papers/Superorganism.pdf | access-date = 2012-07-22 | archive-date = 2016-06-06 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20160606222120/http://pespmc1.vub.ac.be/Papers/Superorganism.pdf }}</ref><ref>{{cite book | author-link = Francis Heylighen | last = Heylighen | first = Francis | date = 2002 | chapter = Das Globale Gehirn als neue Utopia | trans-chapter = The global brain as a new utopia | publisher = Suhrkamp | location = Frankurt | chapter-url = http://pespmc1.vub.ac.be/papers/GB-Utopia.pdf | editor1-first = R. | editor1-last = Maresch | editor2-first = F. | editor2-last = Rötzer | title = Renaissance der Utopie | access-date = 2012-07-22 | archive-date = 2016-04-17 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20160417155341/http://pespmc1.vub.ac.be/papers/GB-Utopia.pdf }}</ref> [[James Surowiecki]] in his book ''[[The Wisdom of Crowds]]'' argued that the reason is that effective [[collective intelligence]] requires [[diversity (politics)|diversity]] of opinion, [[decentralization]] and individual independence. |
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* Berners-Lee, Tim (1999) – Weaving the Web. Texere, London. |
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* Bloom, Howard (2000) Global Brain: The Evolution of Mass Mind from the Big Bang to the 21st Century. |
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* Goertzel, B. (2001) - Creating Internet Intelligence: Wild Computing, Distributed Digital Consciousness, and the Emerging Global Brain. Ed. Plenum. |
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* Heylighen F. (2007): Accelerating Socio-Technological Evolution: from ephemeralization and stigmergy to the global brain, in: "Globalization as an Evolutionary Process: Modeling Global Change", edited by George Modelski, Tessaleno Devezas, and William Thompson, London: Routledge, p.286-335.[[http://pespmc1.vub.ac.be/Papers/AcceleratingEvolution.pdf]] |
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* Heylighen F. (2007): "The Global Superorganism: an evolutionary-cybernetic model of the emerging network society", Social Evolution & History. 6 No. 1,p. 58-119--a detailed exposition of the superorganism/global brain view of society, and an examination of the underlying evolutionary mechanisms, with applications to the on-going and future developments in a globalizing world [[http://pespmc1.vub.ac.be/Papers/Superorganism.pdf]] |
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* Heylighen F. (2005): "Conceptions of a Global Brain: an historical review", , Technological Forecasting and Social Change [in press][[http://pespmc1.vub.ac.be/Papers/GBconceptions.pdf]] |
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* Heylighen F. (2004): "Das Globale Gehirn als neue Utopia" (The Global Brain as a new Utopia), in: R. Maresch & F. Rötzer (eds.) Renaissance der Utopie (Suhrkamp, Frankfurt)[[http://pespmc1.vub.ac.be/Papers/GB-Utopia.pdf]] |
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* Mayer-Kress, G. and Barczys, C. 1995 - The global brain as an emergent structure from the worldwide computing network. The information society 11(1): 1-28. [http://www.santafe.edu/~gmk/Pubs/InfoSoc/] |
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== See also == |
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* {{annotated link | Collective consciousness}} |
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* {{annotated link | Collective intelligence}} |
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* {{annotated link | Complex adaptive system}} |
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* {{annotated link | Gaia hypothesis}} |
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* {{annotated link | Government by algorithm}} |
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* {{annotated link | Knowledge ecosystem}} |
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* {{annotated link | Management cybernetics}} |
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* [[Technoself#Noeme|Noeme]] – a combination of a distinct physical brain function and that of an outsourced virtual one |
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* {{annotated link | Noosphere}}, described by Vladimir Vernadsky and Pierre Teilhard de Chardin |
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* {{annotated link | Singleton (global governance)}} |
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* {{annotated link | Smart city}} |
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* {{annotated link | Social organism}} |
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* {{annotated link | Superorganism}} |
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* {{annotated link | Technological singularity}} |
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* {{annotated link | Ubiquitous computing}} |
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* {{annotated link | World Brain | ''World Brain''}} |
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== References == |
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{{reflist|30em|refs= |
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[[Category:Cybernetics]] |
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[[Category:Futurology]] |
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[[Category:Systems theory]] |
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[[Category:Superorganisms]] |
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<ref name=CAS-T-17>{{cite journal | title = Cyberspace: The Ultimate Complex Adaptive System | url = http://www.dodccrp.org/files/IC2J_v4n2_03_Phister.pdf | journal = The International C2 Journal | access-date = 25 August 2012 | first = Paul W. Jr | last = Phister }}</ref> |
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}} |
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[[fr:cerveau global]] |
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[[nl:globaal brein]] |
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== Further reading == |
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[[zh:全球脑]] |
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===Wide audience=== |
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* {{cite book | author-link = Tim Berners-Lee | last = Berners-Lee | first = Tim | date = 1999 | title = Weaving the Web: The Original Design and Ultimate Destiny of the World Wide Web by its inventor | publisher = [[Harper (publisher)|Harper]] | isbn = 978-0-06-251586-5 | title-link = Weaving the Web }} |
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* {{cite book | author-link = Howard Bloom | last = Bloom | first = Howard | date = 2000 | title = Global Brain: The Evolution of Mass Mind from the Big Bang to the 21st Century }} |
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* {{cite book | last = Russell | first = Peter | date = 1982 | title = The Awakening Earth: The Global Brain | location = London | publisher = Routledge & Kegan Paul }} (emphasis on philosophy and consciousness) |
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* It from bit and fit from bit. On the origin and impact of information in the average evolution. Includes how life forms originate and from there evolve to become more and more complex, like organisations and multinational corporations and a "global brain" (Yves Decadt, 2000). Book published in Dutch with English paper summary in The Information Philosopher, http://www.informationphilosopher.com/solutions/scientists/decadt/ |
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* {{cite book | author-link = Gregory Stock | last = Stock | first = Gregory | date = 1993 | title = Metaman: The Merging of Humans and Machines into a Global Superorganism | title-link = Metaman }} |
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* {{cite book | author-link = Joel de Rosnay | last = de Rosnay | first = Joel | date = 1999 | url = http://pespmc1.vub.ac.be/books/DeRosnay.TheSymbioticMan.pdf | title = The Symbiotic Man: A new understanding of the organization of life and a vision of the future | publisher = McGraw-Hill Companies }} (new sciences and technologies). |
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* {{cite book | first1 = S. | last1 = Nambisan | first2 = M. | last2 = Sawhney | date = 2007 | title = The Global Brain }} (emphasis on global innovation management) |
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===Advanced literature=== |
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* {{cite book | author-link = Ben Goertzel | last = Goertzel | first = B. | date = 2001 | title = Creating Internet Intelligence: Wild Computing, Distributed Digital Consciousness, and the Emerging Global Brain | editor = Plenum }} |
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* {{cite book | author-link = Pierre Teilhard de Chardin | last = Teilhard de Chardin | first = Pierre | date = 1964 | title = The Future of Man | url = https://archive.org/details/futureofman00teil | url-access = registration }} (The classic on physical and psychological/mental development of global brain and global mind). |
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* {{cite book |author-link=Francis Heylighen |last=Heylighen |first=Francis |date=2007 |chapter=Accelerating socio-technological evolution: from ephemeralization and stigmergy to the Global Brain |chapter-url=http://pespmc1.vub.ac.be/Papers/AcceleratingEvolution.pdf |editor1-link=George Modelski |editor1-first=George |editor1-last=Modelski |editor2-first=Tessaleno |editor2-last=Devezas |editor3-first=William |editor3-last=Thompson |title=Globalization as evolutionary process: Modeling global change |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=JHKTAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA284 |place=London | publisher=Routledge | series=Rethinking Globalizations |isbn=978-0-415-77361-4 |pages=284–335|ref=none}} {{ISBN|978-1-135-97764-1}}. |
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For more references, check the [https://sites.google.com/site/gbialternative1/bibliography GBI bibliography]: |
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== External links == |
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* [http://pespmc1.vub.ac.be/GBRAIFAQ.html The Global Brain FAQ ] on the [[Principia Cybernetica Web]] |
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* [http://globalbraininstitute.org The Global Brain Institute] at the [[Vrije Universiteit Brussel]] |
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Global Brain}} |
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[[Category:Management cybernetics]] |
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[[Category:Global civilization]] |
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[[Category:Hypothetical technology]] |
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[[Category:Holism]] |
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[[Category:Superorganisms]] |
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[[Category:Systems theory]] |
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[[Category:Theories of history]] |
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[[Category:World]] |
Latest revision as of 02:37, 20 May 2024
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/d/d2/Internet_map_1024.jpg/300px-Internet_map_1024.jpg)
The global brain is a neuroscience-inspired and futurological vision of the planetary information and communications technology network that interconnects all humans and their technological artifacts.[1] As this network stores ever more information, takes over ever more functions of coordination and communication from traditional organizations, and becomes increasingly intelligent, it increasingly plays the role of a brain for the planet Earth. In the philosophy of mind, global brain finds an analog in Averroes's theory of the unity of the intellect.
Basic ideas
[edit]Proponents of the global brain hypothesis claim that the Internet increasingly ties its users together into a single information processing system that functions as part of the collective nervous system of the planet. The intelligence of this network is collective or distributed: it is not centralized or localized in any particular individual, organization or computer system. Therefore, no one can command or control it. Rather, it self-organizes or emerges from the dynamic networks of interactions between its components. This is a property typical of complex adaptive systems.[2]
The World Wide Web in particular resembles the organization of a brain with its web pages (playing a role similar to neurons) connected by hyperlinks (playing a role similar to synapses), together forming an associative network along which information propagates.[3] This analogy becomes stronger with the rise of social media, such as Facebook, where links between personal pages represent relationships in a social network along which information propagates from person to person.[4] Such propagation is similar to the spreading activation that neural networks in the brain use to process information in a parallel, distributed manner.
History
[edit]Although some of the underlying ideas were already expressed by Nikola Tesla in the late 19th century and were written about by many others before him, the term "global brain" was coined in 1982 by Peter Russell in his book The Global Brain.[5] How the Internet might be developed to achieve this was set out in 1986.[6] The first peer-reviewed article on the subject was published by Gottfried Mayer-Kress in 1995,[7] while the first algorithms that could turn the world-wide web into a collectively intelligent network were proposed by Francis Heylighen and Johan Bollen in 1996.[3][8]
Reviewing the strands of intellectual history that contributed to the global brain hypothesis, Francis Heylighen distinguishes four perspectives: organicism, encyclopedism, emergentism and evolutionary cybernetics. He asserts that these developed in relative independence but now are converging in his own scientific re-formulation.[9]
Organicism
[edit]In the 19th century, the sociologist Herbert Spencer saw society as a social organism and reflected about its need for a nervous system. Entomologist William Wheeler developed the concept of the ant colony as a spatially extended organism, and in the 1930s he coined the term superorganism to describe such an entity.[10] This concept was later adopted by thinkers such as Joël de Rosnay in the book Le Cerveau Planétaire (1986) and Gregory Stock in the book Metaman (1993) to describe planetary society as a superorganism.
The mental aspects of such an organic system at the planetary level were perhaps first broadly elaborated by palaeontologist and Jesuit priest Pierre Teilhard de Chardin. In 1945, he described a coming "planetisation" of humanity, which he saw as the next phase of accelerating human "socialisation". Teilhard described both socialization and planetization as irreversible, irresistible processes of macrobiological development culminating in the emergence of a noosphere, or global mind (see Emergentism below).[11]
The more recent living systems theory describes both organisms and social systems in terms of the "critical subsystems" ("organs") they need to contain in order to survive, such as an internal transport system, a resource reserve, and a decision-making system. This theory has inspired several thinkers, including Peter Russell and Francis Heylighen to define the global brain as the network of information processing subsystems for the planetary social system.
Encyclopedism
[edit]In the perspective of encyclopedism, the emphasis is on developing a universal knowledge network. The first systematic attempt to create such an integrated system of the world's knowledge was the 18th century Encyclopédie of Denis Diderot and Jean le Rond d'Alembert. However, by the end of the 19th century, the amount of knowledge had become too large to be published in a single synthetic volume. To tackle this problem, Paul Otlet founded the science of documentation, now called information science. In the 1930s he envisaged a World Wide Web-like system of associations between documents and telecommunication links that would make all the world's knowledge available immediately to anybody. H. G. Wells proposed a similar vision of a collaboratively developed world encyclopedia that would be constantly updated by a global university-like institution. He called this a World Brain,[12] as it would function as a continuously updated memory for the planet, although the image of humanity acting informally as a more organic global brain is a recurring motif in many of his other works.[13]
Tim Berners-Lee, the inventor of the World Wide Web, too, was inspired by the free-associative possibilities of the brain for his invention. The brain can link different kinds of information without any apparent link otherwise; Berners-Lee thought that computers could become much more powerful if they could imitate this functioning, i.e. make links between any arbitrary piece of information.[14] The most powerful implementation of encyclopedism to date is Wikipedia, which integrates the associative powers of the world-wide-web with the collective intelligence of its millions of contributors, approaching the ideal of a global memory.[9] The Semantic web, also first proposed by Berners-Lee, is a system of protocols to make the pieces of knowledge and their links readable by machines, so that they could be used to make automatic inferences, thus providing this brain-like network with some capacity for autonomous "thinking" or reflection.
Emergentism
[edit]This approach focuses on the emergent aspects of the evolution and development of complexity, including the spiritual, psychological, and moral-ethical aspects of the global brain, and is at present the most speculative approach. The global brain is here seen as a natural and emergent process of planetary evolutionary development. Here again Pierre Teilhard de Chardin attempted a synthesis of science, social values, and religion in his The Phenomenon of Man, which argues that the telos (drive, purpose) of universal evolutionary process is the development of greater levels of both complexity and consciousness. Teilhard proposed that if life persists then planetization, as a biological process producing a global brain, would necessarily also produce a global mind, a new level of planetary consciousness and a technologically supported network of thoughts which he called the noosphere. Teilhard's proposed technological layer for the noosphere can be interpreted as an early anticipation of the Internet and the Web.[15]
Evolutionary cybernetics
[edit]Systems theorists and cyberneticians commonly describe the emergence of a higher order system in evolutionary development as a "metasystem transition" (a concept introduced by Valentin Turchin) or a "major evolutionary transition".[16] Such a metasystem consists of a group of subsystems that work together in a coordinated, goal-directed manner. It is as such much more powerful and intelligent than its constituent systems. Francis Heylighen has argued that the global brain is an emerging metasystem with respect to the level of individual human intelligence, and investigated the specific evolutionary mechanisms that promote this transition.[17]
In this scenario, the Internet fulfils the role of the network of "nerves" that interconnect the subsystems and thus coordinates their activity. The cybernetic approach makes it possible to develop mathematical models and simulations of the processes of self-organization through which such coordination and collective intelligence emerges.
Recent developments
[edit]In 1994 Kevin Kelly, in his popular book Out of Control, posited the emergence of a "hive mind" from a discussion of cybernetics and evolutionary biology.[18]
In 1996, Francis Heylighen and Ben Goertzel founded the Global Brain group, a discussion forum grouping most of the researchers that had been working on the subject of the global brain to further investigate this phenomenon. The group organized the first international conference on the topic in 2001 at the Vrije Universiteit Brussel.
After a period of relative neglect, the Global Brain idea has recently seen a resurgence in interest, in part due to talks given on the topic by Tim O'Reilly, the Internet forecaster who popularized the term Web 2.0,[19] and Yuri Milner, the social media investor.[20] In January 2012, the Global Brain Institute (GBI) was founded at the Vrije Universiteit Brussel to develop a mathematical theory of the "brainlike" propagation of information across the Internet. In the same year, Thomas W. Malone and collaborators from the MIT Center for Collective Intelligence have started to explore how the global brain could be "programmed" to work more effectively,[21] using mechanisms of collective intelligence. The complexity scientist Dirk Helbing and his NervousNet group have recently started developing a "Planetary Nervous System", which includes a "Global Participatory Platform", as part of the large-scale FuturICT project, thus preparing some of the groundwork for a Global Brain.[22]
In July 2017, Elon Musk founded the company Neuralink, which aims to create a brain-computer interface (BCI) with significantly greater information bandwidth than traditional human interface devices. Musk predicts that artificial intelligence systems will rapidly outpace human abilities in most domains and views them as an existential threat. He believes an advanced BCI would enable human cognition to remain relevant for longer. The firm raised $27m from 12 Investors in 2017.[23]
Criticisms
[edit]A common criticism of the idea that humanity would become directed by a global brain is that this would reduce individual diversity and freedom,[24] and lead to mass surveillance.[25] This criticism is inspired by totalitarian forms of government, as exemplified by George Orwell's character of "Big Brother". It is also inspired by the analogy between collective intelligence or swarm intelligence and insect societies, such as beehives and ant colonies, in which individuals are essentially interchangeable. In a more extreme view, the global brain has been compared with the Borg,[26] a race of collectively thinking cyborgs conceived by the Star Trek science fiction franchise.
Global brain theorists reply that the emergence of distributed intelligence would lead to the exact opposite of this vision.[27][28] James Surowiecki in his book The Wisdom of Crowds argued that the reason is that effective collective intelligence requires diversity of opinion, decentralization and individual independence.
See also
[edit]- Collective consciousness – Shared beliefs and ideas in society
- Collective intelligence – Group intelligence that emerges from collective efforts
- Complex adaptive system – System whose behavior is not automatically predictable from its parts
- Gaia hypothesis – Scientific hypothesis about Earth
- Government by algorithm – Alternative form of government or social ordering
- Knowledge ecosystem – Approach to knowledge management
- Management cybernetics – Application of cybernetics to management and organizations
- Noeme – a combination of a distinct physical brain function and that of an outsourced virtual one
- Noosphere – Philosophical concept of biosphere successor via humankind's rational activities, described by Vladimir Vernadsky and Pierre Teilhard de Chardin
- Singleton (global governance) – hypothetical world order in which there is a single decision-making agency
- Smart city – City using integrated information and communication technology
- Social organism – Model of social interactions
- Superorganism – Group of synergistic organisms
- Technological singularity – Hypothetical point in time when technological growth becomes uncontrollable and irreversible
- Ubiquitous computing – Concept in software engineering and computer science
- World Brain – Collection of essays by H. G. Wells
References
[edit]- ^ Heylighen, F. "What is the global brain?". Principa Cybernetica Web. Retrieved 9 November 2017.
- ^ Phister, Paul W. Jr. "Cyberspace: The Ultimate Complex Adaptive System" (PDF). The International C2 Journal. Retrieved 25 August 2012.
- ^ a b Heylighen, Francis; Bollen, J. (1996). Trappl, R. (ed.). The World-Wide Web as a Super-Brain: from metaphor to model (PDF). Cybernetics and Systems' 96. Austrian Society For Cybernetics. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2016-03-04. Retrieved 2012-07-22.
- ^ Weinbaum, D. (2012). "A Framework for Scalable Cognition: Propagation of challenges, towards the implementation of Global Brain models" (PDF). GBI working paper 2012-02. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2016-03-04. Retrieved 2012-07-22.
{{cite journal}}
: Cite journal requires|journal=
(help) - ^ Russell, P. (1983). The Global Brain: speculations on the evolutionary leap to planetary consciousness. Los Angeles: JP Tarcher.
- ^ Andrews, D. (February 1986). "Information routeing groups – Towards the global superbrain: or how to find out what you need to know rather than what you think you need to know". Journal of Information Technology. 1 (1): 22–35. doi:10.1057/jit.1986.5. S2CID 29171232.
- ^ Mayer-Kress, G.; Barczys, C. (1995). "The global brain as an emergent structure from the Worldwide Computing Network, and its implications for modeling" (PDF). The Information Society. 11 (1): 1–27. doi:10.1080/01972243.1995.9960177. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2012-09-07.
- ^ Bollen, J.; Heylighen, Francis (1996). Trappl, R. (ed.). Algorithms for the self-organization of distributed, multi-user networks. Possible application to the future world wide web (PDF). Cybernetics and Systems '96. Austrian Society For Cybernetics. pp. 911–916. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2017-08-09. Retrieved 2012-07-22.
- ^ a b Heylighen, Francis (2011). "Conceptions of a Global Brain: an historical review" (PDF). In Grinin, L. E.; Carneiro, R. L.; Korotayev, A. V.; Spier, F. (eds.). Evolution: Cosmic, Biological, and Social. Uchitel Publishing. pp. 274–289. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2016-04-17. Retrieved 2012-05-16.
- ^ Wheeler, William (1911). "The Ant Colony as an Organism". Journal of Morphology. 22 (2): 307–325. doi:10.1002/jmor.1050220206. S2CID 85810040.
- ^ Teilhard de Chardin, Pierre (1964). "Chap VII – The Planetisation of Man". The Future of Man.
- ^ H.G. Wells. World Brain.
- ^ H.G. Wells. The New Machiavelli.
But the ideas marched on, the ideas marched on, just as though men's brains were no more than stepping-stones, just as though some great brain in which we are all little cells and corpuscles was thinking them! ... And then I came back as if I came back to a refrain; — the ideas go on — as though we are all no more than little cells and corpuscles in some great brain beyond our understanding....
- ^ (Berners-Lee 1999, pp. 4, 41)
- ^ Teilhard de Chardin, Pierre (1964). "Chap X – The Formation of the Noosphere". The Future of Man.
- ^ Szathmáry, Eörs; Maynard Smith, John (16 March 1995). "The major evolutionary transitions". Nature. 374 (6519): 227–232. Bibcode:1995Natur.374..227S. doi:10.1038/374227a0. PMID 7885442. S2CID 4315120.
- ^ Heylighen 2007.
- ^ Kelly, Kevin (1994). Out of control: The Rise of Neo-Biological Civilization. Reading, Mass: Addison-Wesley. pp. 5–28. ISBN 978-0-201-57793-8.
- ^ O'Reilly, Tim (March 2012). Towards a Global Brain. One Great Idea.
- ^ Freeland, Chrystia (2011-09-23). "The advent of the global brain". blogs.reuters.com. Archived from the original on 2011-09-26.
- ^ Bernstein, A.; Klein, M.; Malone, Thomas W. (2012). "Programming the Global Brain" (PDF). Communications of the ACM. 55 (5): 41. doi:10.1145/2160718.2160731. hdl:1721.1/75216. S2CID 9288529. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2012-08-13. Retrieved 2012-08-27.
- ^ Helbing, Dirk (2015). "Creating ("Making") a Planetary Nervous System as Citizen Web". Thinking Ahead - Essays on Big Data, Digital Revolution, and Participatory Market Society. Springer International Publishing. pp. 189–194. doi:10.1007/978-3-319-15078-9_13. ISBN 978-3-319-15077-2.
- ^ da Silva, Chantal (2017-08-28). "Elon Musk could be about to spend $100m linking human brains to computers". The Independent. Retrieved 2017-11-07.
- ^ Rayward, W. B. (1999). "H. G. Wells' s idea of a World Brain: A critical reassessment". Journal of the American Society for Information Science. 50 (7): 557–573. CiteSeerX 10.1.1.85.1010. doi:10.1002/(sici)1097-4571(1999)50:7<557::aid-asi2>3.0.co;2-m.
- ^ Brooks, M. (June 24, 2000). "Global brain". New Scientist (2244): 22.
- ^ Goertzel, Ben (2002). Creating Internet Intelligence: Wild computing, distributed digital consciousness, and the emerging global brain. Kluwer Academic/Plenum Publishers. ISBN 978-0-306-46735-6.
- ^ Heylighen, Francis (2007). "The Global Superorganism: an evolutionary-cybernetic model of the emerging network society" (PDF). Social Evolution & History. 6 (1): 58–119. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2016-06-06. Retrieved 2012-07-22.
- ^ Heylighen, Francis (2002). "Das Globale Gehirn als neue Utopia" [The global brain as a new utopia] (PDF). In Maresch, R.; Rötzer, F. (eds.). Renaissance der Utopie. Frankurt: Suhrkamp. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2016-04-17. Retrieved 2012-07-22.
Further reading
[edit]Wide audience
[edit]- Berners-Lee, Tim (1999). Weaving the Web: The Original Design and Ultimate Destiny of the World Wide Web by its inventor. Harper. ISBN 978-0-06-251586-5.
- Bloom, Howard (2000). Global Brain: The Evolution of Mass Mind from the Big Bang to the 21st Century.
- Russell, Peter (1982). The Awakening Earth: The Global Brain. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul. (emphasis on philosophy and consciousness)
- It from bit and fit from bit. On the origin and impact of information in the average evolution. Includes how life forms originate and from there evolve to become more and more complex, like organisations and multinational corporations and a "global brain" (Yves Decadt, 2000). Book published in Dutch with English paper summary in The Information Philosopher, http://www.informationphilosopher.com/solutions/scientists/decadt/
- Stock, Gregory (1993). Metaman: The Merging of Humans and Machines into a Global Superorganism.
- de Rosnay, Joel (1999). The Symbiotic Man: A new understanding of the organization of life and a vision of the future (PDF). McGraw-Hill Companies. (new sciences and technologies).
- Nambisan, S.; Sawhney, M. (2007). The Global Brain. (emphasis on global innovation management)
Advanced literature
[edit]- Goertzel, B. (2001). Plenum (ed.). Creating Internet Intelligence: Wild Computing, Distributed Digital Consciousness, and the Emerging Global Brain.
- Teilhard de Chardin, Pierre (1964). The Future of Man. (The classic on physical and psychological/mental development of global brain and global mind).
- Heylighen, Francis (2007). "Accelerating socio-technological evolution: from ephemeralization and stigmergy to the Global Brain" (PDF). In Modelski, George; Devezas, Tessaleno; Thompson, William (eds.). Globalization as evolutionary process: Modeling global change. Rethinking Globalizations. London: Routledge. pp. 284–335. ISBN 978-0-415-77361-4. ISBN 978-1-135-97764-1.
For more references, check the GBI bibliography: