Is the Internet evolving into a Global Brain? Pathway to the Global Brain (five part series): Part 1: Introduction to Cybernetics Part 2: Waking Up Part 3: Agriculture and Industry Part 4-5: Coming soon! Relevant Publications: Antonov, A. 2011. Berners-Lee, T. 2000. Bingham, P.M. Bruner, E. 2007. Bostrom, N. 2004. Bostrom, N. 2005. Bostrom, N. 2005. Bostrom, N. 2006. Bostrom, N. & Yudkowsky, E. 2011. Foley, R. & Gamble, C. 2009. Goertzel, B. 2001. Goertzel, B. 2007. Hanson, R. 1998. Hanson, R. 1998. Hanson, R. 2001. Havel, I.M. 2013. Hedges, S.B. 2000. Heylighen, F. 2004. Heylighen, F. 2007. Heylighen, F. 2008. Heylighen, F. 2012. Heylighen, F. 2012. Heylighen, F. 2012. Ingman, M. et al. 2000. Kurzweil, R. 2005. Kurzweil, R. 2012. Levy, P. 1997. Larsen, C.S. 2002. Logan, R.K. 2007. Mayer-Kress, G. & Barczys, C. 1994. Maynard, S.J. & Szathmary, E. 1995. Maynard, S.J. & Szathmary, E. 2000. McBrearty, S. & Brooks, A.S. 2000. Mikkelsen, T.S. et al. 2005. Muehlhauser, L. & Salamon, A. 2012. Navarrete, A., van Schaik, C.P., & Isler, K. 2011.
What Is The Global Brain? The Internet: You Are Here The Global Brain may sound like something out of a 21st century science fiction novel. But it is actually a concept that first emerged in the social and biological sciences during the late 19th century. The first interesting structure that alerted scientists to the possibility that we were a superorganism was metabolism. Ingestor – i.e., eating, drinking, inhalingConverter – i.e., digestive system, lungsDistributor – i.e., circulatory systemProducer – i.e., stem cellsExtruder – i.e., urine excretion, defecation, exhalingStorage – i.e., fat, bonesSupport – i.e., skeletonMotor – i.e., muscles And within human society, we can find analogous structure that quite perfectly mirror the functions of metabolism in individual organisms: This is all very interesting, and it makes our species look a lot like a giant, planetary superorganism. Well, understandably many 19th and early 20th century scientists did not find a global nervous system of any kind. Thank you Internet.
Pathway to the Global Brain (part 3/5): Agriculture and Industry Agriculture and Industry If you share this, please use the hashtags #GlobalBrain and/or #LongReads The Global Brain is a concept representing the hypothesized emergence of a higher-level distributed intelligence caused by human-machine communication networks on the Internet. Leading research and model-building on this phenomenon is occurring at the Global Brain Institute in Belgium. The following blog series is in preparation for my Ph.D. work on the Global Brain. I would like to create a new perspective on our evolutionary history which combines evolutionary anthropology and cybernetics. Previously in the Pathway to the Global Brain blog series: (Part 1/5): Introduction to Cybernetics (Part 2/5): Waking Up I hope you enjoy the groundwork for this work. Agriculture Agriculture During the first metasystem transition, everything that we think of as “uniquely human” first developed. Cue the agricultural revolution. The hunting transition likely had many centers. Omo Omo Energy and Control Industry
Pathway to the Global Brain (part 2/5): Waking Up Our evolution If you share this, please use the hashtags #GlobalBrain and/or #LongReads The Global Brain is a concept representing the hypothesized emergence of a higher-level distributed intelligence caused by human-machine communication networks on the Internet. Leading research and model-building on this phenomenon is occurring at the Global Brain Institute in Belgium. The following blog series is in preparation for my Ph.D. work on the Global Brain. Previously in the Pathway to the Global Brain blog series: (Part 1/5): Introduction to Cybernetics I hope you enjoy the groundwork for this work. My contribution to the discussion on the Global Brain is rooted in evolutionary anthropology. Before the Transitions There have been three major metasystem transitions in human history: HuntingAgricultureIndustry Metasystem transitions lead to a higher level of order and control. Cooperation has increased with every transition Hunting Hunting opened up a new regular energy source. The Metasystem Pattern
Pathway to the Global Brain (part 1/5): Introduction to Cybernetics What is the nature of intelligence? If you share this, please use the hashtags #GlobalBrain and/or #LongReads The Global Brain is a concept representing the hypothesized emergence of a higher-level distributed intelligence caused by human-machine communication networks on the Internet. Leading research and model-building on this phenomenon is occurring at the Global Brain Institute in Belgium. The following blog series is in preparation for my Ph.D. work on the Global Brain. I hope you enjoy the groundwork for this work (below). Biological intelligence is a fleeting phase in the evolution of the universe. – Paul Davies The human story is a story about reaching towards the Sun. – Me Imagine it is the year 3,000 C.E. If you are like me, this would be quite a strange future. In a 2007 Long Now Foundation article by computer scientist Vernor Vinge, he proposed a few thought experiments about our future. 1) “The Wheel of Time” scenario – humanity experiences series of endless cycles. City / Neuron
Pathway to the Global Brain (part 4/5): Entering the Global Brain Inside our brain. Previously in the Pathway to the Global Brain blog series: (Part 1/5): Introduction to Cybernetics (Part 2/5): Waking Up (Part 3/5): Agriculture and Industry Global Brain So we have travelled through 2 million years of human evolution and here is where we stand. I have tried to show that challenge propagation as a theory can explain quite well how our system behaves, and why our systems structure is essentially identical to an actual brain. Today, we live in a world that has just gone through (or actually is going through) a communication revolution with the development of the Internet. Coming from my evolutionary anthropological perspective, this is clearly a communication revolution like none other in human history. Let’s continue on our evolutionary path. Because metasystem transitions follow a very simple pattern (new communication/new energy source feedback loop -> new transportation) we can predict a few things about our systems future. What about religion? Religion.
Why Our Infant Global Brain is Helping the Best Ideas to Rise to the Top Posted on Saturday, August 3, 2013 in Content Marketing For some time I’ve been trying to pin down exactly what is happening as we each spend more and more time online. In the past I’ve compared the Internet to a big library. I’ve also had a sneaky suspicion that it’s going to help us unify and adjust as we deal with the effects of climate change. However, I’m going to add one new idea to the mix – we are creating a global brain. I’m sure other people have thought along similar lines but I’m going to try and back it up with some of my own experience of how quickly ideas are spreading and why it’s really difficult to keep a good idea down. Before I lead into this I must credit Sarah Susanka for triggering these thoughts. I particularly like this description because it reminds me how little time the Internet has been around and suggests that it is likely to mature in the future. Sharing Ideas Has Gradually Become Easier There is nothing new about sharing. Interactivity is a Formidable Force
The Future of Intelligence Cadell Last, Adam Ford By Cadell Last Human intelligence, like everything related to biological systems, is an evolving phenomenon. It has not been static in the past, and will not persist in its current form into the future. The human-version of intelligence has made our species the most powerful agent of change ever produced by the earth's biosphere. Therefore, understanding its evolutionary past should be a primary concern for evolutionary theorists. Clearly the human ability to engage in these novel behaviours is dependent on the human brain. a comparatively short period of evolutionary time, hominid brain size exploded. Before the emergence of our genus, apes had existed for approximately 18 million years. Recent studies, like those conducted on the 2.5 million-year-old Australopithecus africanus skull known as Taung Child suggest that human-like brain growth had already started in the precursor species to Homo. The Explosion Global Brain A) how energy-intensive they are
Universe Grows Like A Brain | Social Networks The universe may grow like a giant brain, according to a new computer simulation. The results, published Nov.16 in the journal Nature's Scientific Reports, suggest that some undiscovered, fundamental laws may govern the growth of systems large and small, from the electrical firing between brain cells and growth of social networks to the expansion of galaxies. "Natural growth dynamics are the same for different real networks, like the Internet or the brain or social networks," said study co-author Dmitri Krioukov, a physicist at the University of California San Diego. The new study suggests a single fundamental law of nature may govern these networks, said physicist Kevin Bassler of the University of Houston, who was not involved in the study. [What's That? Your Physics Questions Answered] "At first blush they seem to be quite different systems, the question is, is there some kind of controlling laws can describe them?" Similar Networks Brain cells and galaxies
The Omega Point [Jason Silva] Why the Global Brain needs a Therapist The idea that the world itself could be considered an overarching form of mind can trace its roots deep into the religious longings of pantheism- the idea that the universe itself is God, or the closest thing we will ever find to our conception of God. In large part, I find pantheists to be a noble group. Any club that might count as its members a philosophical giant like Spinoza, a paradigm shattering genius such as Einstein, or a songbird like Whitman I would be honored to belong to myself. But alas, I have my doubts about pantheism- at least in particular its contemporary manifestation in the form of our telecommunications and computer networks being granted the status of an embryonic “global brain”. I wish it were so, but all the evidence seems to point in the other direction. Key figures in this idea that our communications networks might constitute the neural passageways of a great collective brain predate the Internet by more than a generation. EAGLEMAN: Yeah.
Proposal for a World Brain Institute and Development of a Global Game Robert David Steele Vivas December 26, 2012 [Editor's Note: The World Brain was proposed in collection of essays by H. G. The Need Four developments converged in 2009 to suggest the end of the industrial era in which treaties and military force were the principal means of governing human affairs; There is an urgent need for a new means of hybrid self-governance that reflects the diversity of human interests and capabilities. The fragmentation of knowledge, and the gap between people with power and people with knowledge, is the root cause of our universal failure to deal responsibly with the ten high-level threats to humanity. World Information Summits and Global Knowledge Summits have not addressed the core need: to connect all human minds with one another and with all information in all languages. Proposed Solution Benefits Examples ClimateGate. 1. 2. Iraq-Afghanistan. 1. 2. Conclusion Additional Information: