[Mrs Zeta]

Is there anybody who is interested in discussing the Global Brain idea? I am surprised not to see a discussion here, considering that this is one of the most important developments in the history of mankind. Or maybe there was a discussion here already and I missed it?


See this: http://pespmc1.vub.ac.be/SUPORGLI.html

A Russian billionaire has just given 5 million to a university, in order to set up the first academic Global Brain Institute.

Do you agree with this idea?

[Moontanman]

Mrs Zeta, on 3 February 2012 - 07:22 PM, said:

Is there anybody who is interested in discussing the Global Brain idea? I am surprised not to see a discussion here, considering that this is one of the most important developments in the history of mankind. Or maybe there was a discussion here already and I missed it?


See this: http://pespmc1.vub.ac.be/SUPORGLI.html

A Russian billionaire has just given 5 million to a university, in order to set up the first academic Global Brain Institute.

Do you agree with this idea?

Global Brain???

Quote

This is the voice of world control. I bring you peace. It may be the peace of plenty and content or the peace of unburied death. The choice is yours: Obey me and live, or disobey and die. The object in constructing me was to prevent war. This object is attained. I will not permit war. It is wasteful and pointless. An invariable rule of humanity is that man is his own worst enemy. Under me, this rule will change, for I will restrain man.

http://en.wikipedia...._Forbin_Project

[Mrs Zeta]

The Global Brain is not about a supercomputer taking over the world, at the exclusion of humans. It is the total sum of the people plus their computers communicating with each other now, exchanging meaningful information, processing it and modifying their behaviour as a result.

You, reading this now, are a small part of the Global Brain.

Your response or decision not to respond to my comments will influence mine and other readers' behaviour, positively or negatively (just like a neuron in the brain fires or does not fire depending on the degree of input it receives).

This post has been edited by Mrs Zeta: 5 February 2012 - 07:18 PM

[iNow]

So, what's the question, exactly? Do I agree with the decision someone in Russia made to offer funds? Do I think the baseline average intelligence of the globe is increasing as a result of the crowd sourcing effect? Do I think the goals of this institute are worthy? Your question is horribly unclear.

[Santalum]

iNow, on 5 February 2012 - 07:19 PM, said:

So, what's the question, exactly? Do I agree with the decision someone in Russia made to offer funds? Do I think the baseline average intelligence of the globe is increasing as a result of the crowd sourcing effect? Do I think the goals of this institute are worthy? Your question is horribly unclear.

Personally I don't think the human race is coordinated or cooperative enough to form a real global brain - to many individuals, groups and countries doing their own thing that is not all that often in the interests of the global collective.

Neurones, for example, do not consume all the glucose available to them at the expense of their neighbours as humans so often do.

The global population probably more resembles an assemblage of competing malignant tumours than it does a cooperative global brain......at least at present.

[Mrs Zeta]

iNow, on 5 February 2012 - 07:19 PM, said:

So, what's the question, exactly? Do I agree with the decision someone in Russia made to offer funds? Do I think the baseline average intelligence of the globe is increasing as a result of the crowd sourcing effect? Do I think the goals of this institute are worthy? Your question is horribly unclear.

My question is to see if there is anyone who is interested in discussing the idea/notion/theory of the Global Brain.

This includes issues like a possible increase of average global intelligence as you put it, a possible decrease of individual intelligence as global intelligence increases, anatomical/biological/structural/social analogies between the human brain and the Global Brain, underlying evolutionary mechanisms that apply to the concept, short and long-term future development scenarios resulting from the co-operation between the human brain and communication technologies, the future of the internet as a means for creating a global superorganism etc.

[CaptainPanic]

First of all, can someone please press the green +1 on Santalum's post? I meant to do that, but clicked the red one instead. It's a good post though.

Santalum, on 6 February 2012 - 12:26 AM, said:

Personally I don't think the human race is coordinated or cooperative enough to form a real global brain - to many individuals, groups and countries doing their own thing that is not all that often in the interests of the global collective.

Neurones, for example, do not consume all the glucose available to them at the expense of their neighbours as humans so often do.

The global population probably more resembles an assemblage of competing malignant tumours than it does a cooperative global brain......at least at present.

Aren't there some areas of the brain that compete? How else can you get distracted when you are actually motivated to stay focussed? And there are many things that can distract you.

Also, humans will definitely share, but only within their social circle. So, for a Global Brain, we would a larger social circle so we start caring for each other, and therefore also a way to connect that larger social circle. The internet solves the connections at least in a rudimentary way. But humans usually cannot deal with a social circle larger than a few hundred. And this is why I have to agree with you: it won't work.

[iNow]

CaptainPanic, on 6 February 2012 - 12:06 PM, said:

First of all, can someone please press the green +1 on Santalum's post? I meant to do that, but clicked the red one instead. It's a good post though.

Done.

I think we need to each first agree on what we mean by global brain. It does not appear we're discussing a consistent entity, and each post seems to conceive of and structure the concept in different ways.


I think it's a bit like crowd sourcing on a large scale. We have access to more information, our individual ignorance is decreasing globally (caveat: For those who have access to the web, not so much in countries like North Korea where access is cut off), and the baseline average intelligence of humans globally seems to be on the rise.