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The Future Internet as a Global Brain: an update of the theory

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  • user warning: Table 'cache_filter' is marked as crashed and should be repaired query: UPDATE cache_filter SET data = '<div align=\"center\"><font size=\"+1\">The Future Internet as a Global Brain: an update of the theory</font></div>\n<div align=\"center\">&nbsp;</div>\n<div align=\"center\">&nbsp;<a href=\"http://pespmc1.vub.ac.be/HEYL.html\" target=\"_blank\">Francis Heylighen</a></div>\n<div align=\"center\">(Evolution, Complexity and Cognition group, VUB)</div>\n<div>&nbsp;</div>\n<div>&nbsp;</div>\n<div><strong>Abstract </strong></div>\n<div>&nbsp;</div>\n<div>The ECCO research group will soon be launching a &quot;Global Brain Institute&quot; (GBI) at the VUB. This provides a good occasion for summarizing the research that will form the focus of this new institute.</div>\n<div>&nbsp;</div>\n<div>The Global Brain can be defined as the emergence of a distributed, planetary intelligence supported by the Internet. The seminar will first summarize the history of research in this domain, starting over a century ago with the pioneers Herbert Spencer, Teilhard de Chardin, Paul Otlet and H.G. Wells, and building up to the creation of the world-wide web in the 1990s. It will then sketch the present situation and the contributions of the ECCO research group.</div>\n<div>&nbsp;</div>\n<div>The seminar concludes by proposing conceptual foundations for a future theory of the global brain. The global brain would emerge by the self-organization of the network of people, computers and various tools, facilitated by the directed propagation of challenges from agent to agent across a global medium. Its function will be to coordinate (and thus increase the synergy between) all human and machine activities. The global brain would thus play the role of a nervous system for the planetary organism.</div>\n<div>&nbsp;</div>\n<div>&nbsp;</div>\n<div><b>References</b></div>\n<div>&nbsp;</div>\n<div>Heylighen F. (2011) <a href=\"http://pespmc1.vub.ac.be/Papers/GBI-Vision.pdf\" target=\"_blank\">The GBI Vision: past, present and future context of global brain research</a> (ECCO working paper 2011-11)</div>\n<div>&nbsp;</div>\n<div>Heylighen F. (in press) <a href=\"http://pcp.vub.ac.be/Papers/Barcelona-LanguageSO.pdf\" target=\"_blank\">Self-organization in Communicating Groups</a>: the emergence of coordination, shared references and collective intelligence, in:<i> Language and Complexity</i>, Barcelona University Press</div>\n<div>&nbsp;</div>\n<div>Heylighen F. (2011) <a href=\"http://pespmc1.vub.ac.be/Papers/GBconceptions.pdf\" target=\"_blank\">Conceptions of a Global Brain: an historical review</a>, in:<i> Evolution: Cosmic, Biological, and Social</i>, pp: 274 - 289, eds: Grinin, L. E., Carneiro, R. L., Korotayev A. V., Spier F., Uchitel Publishing, Moscow.</div>\n<div>&nbsp;</div>\n<div><a href=\"http://blogs.reuters.com/chrystia-freeland/tag/yuri-milner\" target=\"_blank\">Yuri Milner on the future of the internet</a> (transcript of Milner\'s presentation to the Yalta Annual Meeting in September 2011)</div>\n<div>&nbsp;</div>\n<div>&nbsp;</div>\n<div><a href=\"http://pespmc1.vub.ac.be/ECCO/Seminars/Heylighen-GBI.pps\"><strong> ------&gt; Slides of the talk</strong></a>&nbsp;</div>\n<div>&nbsp;</div>\n<div>&nbsp;</div>\n<p>&nbsp;</p>\n', created = 1638613680, expire = 1638700080, headers = '', serialized = 0 WHERE cid = '2:0afe8f0f066d4e72f4125e0da25c28e5' in /home2/secrecco/www/includes/cache.inc on line 109.
Submitted by Weaver Silken on Mon, 10/31/2011 - 19:06
The Future Internet as a Global Brain: an update of the theory
 
(Evolution, Complexity and Cognition group, VUB)
 
 
Abstract
 
The ECCO research group will soon be launching a "Global Brain Institute" (GBI) at the VUB. This provides a good occasion for summarizing the research that will form the focus of this new institute.
 
The Global Brain can be defined as the emergence of a distributed, planetary intelligence supported by the Internet. The seminar will first summarize the history of research in this domain, starting over a century ago with the pioneers Herbert Spencer, Teilhard de Chardin, Paul Otlet and H.G. Wells, and building up to the creation of the world-wide web in the 1990s. It will then sketch the present situation and the contributions of the ECCO research group.
 
The seminar concludes by proposing conceptual foundations for a future theory of the global brain. The global brain would emerge by the self-organization of the network of people, computers and various tools, facilitated by the directed propagation of challenges from agent to agent across a global medium. Its function will be to coordinate (and thus increase the synergy between) all human and machine activities. The global brain would thus play the role of a nervous system for the planetary organism.
 
 
References
 
Heylighen F. (2011) The GBI Vision: past, present and future context of global brain research (ECCO working paper 2011-11)
 
Heylighen F. (in press) Self-organization in Communicating Groups: the emergence of coordination, shared references and collective intelligence, in: Language and Complexity, Barcelona University Press
 
Heylighen F. (2011) Conceptions of a Global Brain: an historical review, in: Evolution: Cosmic, Biological, and Social, pp: 274 - 289, eds: Grinin, L. E., Carneiro, R. L., Korotayev A. V., Spier F., Uchitel Publishing, Moscow.
 
Yuri Milner on the future of the internet (transcript of Milner's presentation to the Yalta Annual Meeting in September 2011)
 
 
 
 

 

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