The global brain is the name given to the emerging intelligent network formed by all people on this planet, together with the computers and communication links that connect them together. Like a real brain, this network is an immensely complex, self-organizing system, that processes information, makes decisions, solves problems, learns new connections and discovers new ideas. It plays the role of a collective nervous system for the whole of humanity. No person, organization or computer is in control of this system: its "thought" processes are distributed over all its components.

The global superorganism

The metaphor of the information network as global brain can be extended to the whole of society as a global organism. If the information processes in the network constitute the "mind" of this system, all people together with their artefacts (tools, buildings, cars, etc.) form its "body". Since individual people are organisms themselves, this encompassing system is an organism consisting of organisms, that is, a superorganism. The superorganism not only has a nervous system for processing information, but a metabolism for processing matter and energy: resources such as ores, water, oil are converted via various industrial processes into specialized goods and services, transported to the place where they are needed, used, and finally recycled or excreted as waste. Miller's living systems theory provides a detailed correspondence between the different subsystems of a society and those of an organism.

Other names for this concept

Different people have proposed many different names for this concept of an cognitive system at the planetary level: planetary brain, world brain, global mind, noosphere, social brain, and super-brain are some of the roughly equivalent synonyms. For the global superorganism, there are some less obvious equivalent terms, such as Metaman (proposed by G. Stock), cybion (J. de Rosnay), the super-being (V. Turchin), and social organism.

History of the idea

As the variety of names indicates, many people have independently developed the idea of society as an organism with its own nervous system, each adding their own insights to our understanding of the global brain. Simplistic analogies between a social system and the body, such as "the king is the head", "the farmers are the feet", date back at least to the Ancient Greeks and the Middle Ages. This analogy provided inspiration to the 19th century founders of sociology, being developed perhaps most extensively by Herbert Spencer. The evolutionary theologist Teilhard de Chardin was probably the first to focus on the mental organization of this social organism, which he called the noosphere. Around the same time, the science fiction writer H. G. Wells proposed the concept of a "World Brain" as a unified system of knowledge, accessible to all, very similar to the one proposed a few years earlier by the information scientist Paul Otlet. The term "global brain" seems to have been first used in 1983 by Peter Russell. The first people to have made the connection between this concept and the emerging Internet may well be G. Mayer-Kress and Joël de Rosnay. Francis Heylighen , Johan Bollen and Ben Goertzel appear to be the first researchers to have proposed concrete methods that might turn the Internet into an intelligent, brain-like network.

The global brain as a higher level of evolution

Although the analogy between organism and society can be applied even to primitive societies, it becomes clearly more applicable as technology develops. As transport and communication become more efficient, different parts of global society become more interdependent. At the same time, the variety of ideas, specializations, and subcultures increases. This simultaneous integration and differentiation creates an increasingly coherent system, functioning at a much higher level of complexity. The emergence of such a higher order system may be called a "metasystem transition " (a concept introduced by V. Turchin). Examples of metaystem transitions include the origin of life and the development of multicellular organisms out of single celled ones. The appearance of a global brain, functioning at a much higher level of intelligence than its human components, seems a prime example of such a metasystem transition.

Global brain technologies

To make the global information network function really at a higher level of intelligence, instead of merely storing and transmitting data, new technologies are needed. These technologies are inspired by our understanding of how the human brain works: how it learns associations, thinks, makes decisions, etc. At the same time, these technologies must take into account that the information on the net is not centrally controlled, but distributed over millions of people and documents, with billions of cross-connections. Thus, cognitive processes at the level of the global brain must allow all this chaotic, heterogeneous information to interact so that collective patterns can appear. Some of the more traditional technologies include the various methods of keyword-based information retrieval. Others may use techniques derived from artificial intelligence, such as software agents, neural networks or data mining. Still others, such as collaborative filtering or groupware, enhance collective problem solving.

More information

Several books, papers and websites discuss the global brain idea and its many ramifications. Most of these can be accessed via the [references on the Global Brain] page. To quickly get into the heart of the matter, read the [GB FAQ]. For a more gentle, non-technical introduction with more background information you can read books addressed to a wide audience:

• P. Russell: "The Global Brain Awakens" (emphasis on philosophy and consciousness)

• G. Stock: "Metaman" (social and economic evolution)

• J. de Rosnay': "The Symbiotic Man" (new sciences and technologies).