The noosphere can be seen as the "sphere of human thought" being derived from the Greek νους ('nous') meaning 'mind' in the style of 'atmosphere' and 'biosphere'. Just as the biosphere is composed of all the organisms on Earth and their interactions, the noosphere is composed of all the interacting minds on Earth. The word is also sometimes used to refer to a transhuman consciousness emerging from these interactions. This is the view proposed by the theologist Teilhard de Chardin, who added that the noosphere is evolving towards an ever greater integration, culminating in the Omega Point—which he saw as the ultimate goal of history.

In the original theory of Vernadsky, the noosphere is the third in a succession of phases of development of the earth, after the geosphere (inanimate matter) and the biosphere (biological life). Just as the emergence of life fundamentally transformed the geosphere, the emergence of human cognition fundamentally transforms the biosphere. In contrast to the conceptions of Teilhard de Chardin, the Gaia theorists, or the promoters of cyberspace, Vernadsky's noosphere is not something that is just now coming into being, or will emerge in the future; it arrived with the birth of the first cognitive human being, and is manifested throughout the biosphere in the form of human intervention, which principally takes the form of economic development of the planet.

A somewhat different approach focuses on "sustainability," and begins to look at this concept in terms of "co-evolution" [Norgaard, 1994].

History of this expression:

• E. LeRoy's Les origines humaines et l'evolution de l'intelligence (1928)
• Vladimir I. Vernadsky (1863-1945)
• Pierre Teilhard de Chardin (1881-1955)

See also

• Cyberspace
• Integrative thinking
• Memetics
• Ideosphere
• Global brain

External links

• http://noosphere.cc/noosphere.html
• http://lawoftime.org

References

• Paul R. Samson and David Pitt (eds.)(1999), The Biosphere and Noosphere Reader: Global Environment, Society and Change. ISBN 0415166446
• "The Quest for a Unified Theory of Information", World Futures, Volumes 49 (3-4) & 50 (1-4) 1997, Special Issue
• Raymond, Eric (2000), "Homesteading the Noosphere", available online.
• Norgaard, R. B. (1994). Development betrayed: the end of progress and a coevolutionary revisioning of the future. London; New York, Routledge. ISBN 0415068622