Customer Reviews

World Brain (Essay Index Reprint Series)

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"There is no practical obstacle whatsoever now to the creation of an efficient index to all human knowledge, ideas and achievements, to the creation, that is, of a complete planetary memory for all mankind. It foreshadows a real intellectual unification of our race. The whole human memory can be, and probably in a short time will be, made accessible to every individual. In what is also of very great importance in this uncertain world where destruction becomes continually more frequent and unpredictable, is this, that...it need not be concentrated in a one single place. It need not be vulnerable as a human head or a human heart is vulnerable. It can be reproduced exactly and fully, in Peru, China, Iceland, Central Africa, or wherever else.... It can have at once, the concentration of a craniate animal and the diffused vitality of an amoeba." H. G. Wells, 1937 in his book titled "WORLD BRAIN"

Edit of 16 Jan 07 to add links.

This volume, reprinted in the 1990's with a superb introductory essay, is still a gem, and extremely relevant to the emerging dialog about Collective Intelligence that includes the works of people like Howard Bloom (Global Brain), Pierre Levy (Collective Intelligence), Howard Rheingold (Smart Mobs), and James Surowieki (The Wisdom of the Crowds).

Global Brain: The Evolution of Mass Mind from the Big Bang to the 21st Century
Collective Intelligence: Mankind's Emerging World in Cyberspace
Smart Mobs: The Next Social Revolution
The Wisdom of Crowds

The Internet has finally made possible the vision of H. G. Wells, as well as the vision of Quincy Wright (who called for a World Intelligence Center in the 1950's, using only open sources of information).

This specific work is the first brick in a global networked brain that is also linked to eliminating poverty and war and producing what Alvin and Heidi Toffler call "Revolutionary Wealth" (also the title of their book coming out in April 2006). Thomas Stewart ("Wealth of Knowledge") and Barry Carter ("Infinite Wealth") are among my other heros in this specific genre of the literature. See my List on Collective Intelligence, and my reviews of all these other books.

Revolutionary Wealth: How it will be created and how it will change our lives
The Wealth of Knowledge: Intellectual Capital and the Twenty-first Century Organization
Infinite Wealth: A New World of Collaboration and Abundance in the Knowledge Era

Published since my view, and highly pertinent:
The Wealth of Networks: How Social Production Transforms Markets and Freedom
The Fortune at the Bottom of the Pyramid: Eradicating Poverty Through Profits (Wharton School Publishing Paperbacks)

A broad and prolific mind, had Mr. Wells. This book shows him in his P&P mode: Predictor and Proselytor. 'The World Brain' sounds like the title of one of his many stories which more or less invented the field of science fiction as we know it. This is not so...this is non-fiction. Nor is it like such books of his as his world history. This, in fact, is a collection of his talks, given at home, here in the US, and in Europe over a three year period on the general subject of a need for a better encyclopedia. This book will prove boring, I suspect, for most because of its' repetitious nature but for the same reason, its' repitition, it is interesting to read as his ideas move over the period. And to realize, as they do, that he is in fact, creating what we now call the World Wide Web.

First published in 1938, a modern edition is vastly improved by the addition of a critical introduction by Alan Mayne. Very much focused on how a world-brain might alter national policy-making, how Public Opinion or an "Open Conspiracy" might restore common sense and popular control to arenas previously reserved for an elite. The information functionality of the World Brain easily anticipated the world wide web as it might evolve over the next 20-30 years: comprehensive, up to date, distributed, classification scheme, dynamic, indexes, summaries and surveys, freely available and easily accessible. We have a long way to go, but the framework is there. The communication functions of the world brain would include a highly effective information retrieval system, selective dissemination of information, efficient communication facilities, effective presentation, popular education, public and individual awareness for all issues, and facilitate social networking between organizations, groups, and individuals. The world brain is the "virtual intelligence community" qua noosphere. This is one of the fundamental references for anyone thinking about the future of politics, economics, or social systems.