Noosphere

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Noosphere (pronounced /ˈnoʊ.ɵsfɪər/; sometimes noösphere), according to the thought of Vladimir Vernadsky and Teilhard de Chardin, denotes the "sphere of human thought". The word is derived from the Greek νοῦς (nous "mind") + σφαῖρα (sphaira "sphere"), in lexical analogy to "atmosphere" and "biosphere".

In the original theory of Vernadsky, the noosphere is the third in a succession of phases of development of the Earth and it includes all of the multiverse, 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 the Gaia theorists, or the promoters of cyberspace, Vernadsky's noosphere emerges at the point where humankind, through the mastery of nuclear processes, begins to create resources through the transmutation of elements. It is also currently being researched as part of the Princeton Global Consciousness Project.^[1]

History of concept

For Teilhard, the noosphere emerges through and is constituted by the interaction of human minds. The noosphere has grown in step with the organization of the human mass in relation to itself as it populates the earth. As mankind organizes itself in more complex social networks, the higher the noosphere will grow in awareness. This is an extension of Teilhard's Law of Complexity/Consciousness, the law describing the nature of evolution in the universe. Teilhard argued that the noosphere is growing towards an even greater integration and unification, culminating in the Omega point, which he saw as the goal of history. The goal of history, then, is an apex of thought/consciousness.

One of the original aspects of the noosphere concept deals with evolution. Henri Bergson (1907) was one of the first to propose that evolution is 'creative' and cannot necessarily be explained solely by Darwinian natural selection. L'évolution créatrice is upheld, according to Bergson, by a constant vital force that animates life and fundamentally connects mind and body, an idea opposing the dualism of René Descartes. In 1923, C. Lloyd Morgan took this work further, elaborating on an 'emergent evolution' that could explain increasing complexity (including the evolution of mind). Morgan found that many of the most interesting changes in living things have been largely discontinuous with past evolution, and therefore did not necessarily take place through a gradual process of natural selection. Rather, evolution experiences jumps in complexity (such as the emergence of a self-reflective universe, or noosphere). Finally, the complexification of human cultures, particularly language, facilitated a quickening of evolution in which cultural evolution occurs more rapidly than biological evolution. Recent understanding of human ecosystems and of human impact on the biosphere have led to a link between the notion of sustainability with the "co-evolution" [Norgaard, 1994] and harmonization of cultural and biological evolution.

The resulting political system has been referred to as a noocracy.

American integral theorist Ken Wilber deals with this third evolution of the noosphere. In his work, Sex, Ecology, Spirituality (1995), he builds many of his arguments on the emergence of the noosphere and the continued emergence of further evolutionary structures.

The term Noöcene epoch refers to "how we manage and adapt to the immense amount of knowledge we’ve created." [1]

The noosphere concept of 'unification' was elaborated in popular science fiction by Julian May in the Galactic Milieu Series. It is also the reason Teilhard is often called the patron saint of the Internet.^[2]

History of this expression:

• Henri Bergson's L'évolution créatrice (1907)
• Edouard Le Roy's Les origines humaines et l'évolution de l'intelligence (1928)
• Vladimir I. Vernadsky (1863-1945)
• Pierre Teilhard de Chardin (1881-1955)
• David Ronfeldt and John Arquilla
• Wilfrid Desan

Instances in popular culture

Ambient dance group The Orb, in the track 'O.O.B.E.' from the album U.F.Orb, use a sample from the reading of New Pathways to Psychology by Colin Wilson, who discusses the concept of the Noösphere.

The Noösphere is an important element of Matthew Hughes's 2004 novel, "Black Brillion."

In The Gone-Away World, a novel by Nick Harkaway, Earth is devastated in a war fought with "Go-Away Bombs" -- weapons which erase the information content of matter, causing it to disappear from reality. The fallout of these bombs, called "Stuff", subsequently draws information from the noosphere, "reifying" human ideas and thoughts into physical form and creating a fantasy landscape of monsters and horrors.

In "Apocalypse: 2012", Vernadsky's thoughts on the noosphere are measured with interesting results.

In Neon Genesis Evangelion the Human Instrumentality Project has the goal of achieving the state of a Noosphere.

In the game S.T.A.L.K.E.R Shadow of Chernobyl, the nuclear power plant is being used for scientific experiments involving adjusting the Noosphere to remove aggression from humans. As a failed attempt at doing this, the "Zone" was created.

Progressive Death Metal band Obscura have a song called Noosphere on their album Cosmogenesis.

In the game Realms of the Haunting, In a conversation path with Rebecca Trevisard, asking her about the Noosphere, she defines it as "The Noosphere - or mindsphere - is the term for the network of thought which some people believe surrounds the Earth and links all humanity".

References

External links

Look up noosphere in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

• "Evidence for the Akashic Field from Modern Consciousness Research" by consiousness researcher Dr. Stanislav Grof, M.D.
• http://www.lawoftime.org/GRI/GRI.html# The Place of the Noosphere in Cosmic Evolution (pdf)
• http://noosphere.princeton.edu/ Global Consciousness project at Princeton
• Fortaleciendo la Inteligencia Sincrónica
• Unidad de Ciencia Noosféricas de la Universidad del Mar en Chile
• http://transhumanism.org/index.php/WTA/declaration/
• http://www.odeo.com/channel/105280 "Just Say Yes to the Noosphere", a Podcast from Stanford Law School
• Omega Point Institute Noosphere, Global Thought, Future Studies
• Noosphere and Homo Noeticus
• Semandeks A web application that tries to imitate Noosphere
• Synaptic Web States that the Web is the substrate for the "sphere of human thought"