Noosphere of Naiveté

“Both the French paleontologist-priest Pierre Teilhard de Chardin and the Russian atheist Vladimir Vernadsky agreed that Earth is developing a global mind.   The layer of thought in the shape of a sphere they called the noosphere, from Greek noos, mind.  The aggregate net of throbbing life, from flashing fireflies to human e-mail, is the developing planetary mind.  Perhaps, like the brain of a human babe with many synaptic connections that diminish over time, the noosphere is still in its infancy.  Polymorphous, paranoiac, confused, yet intensely imaginative, the thinking layer of Earth that is largely the unexpected product of animal consciousness, may now be in its most impressionable stage.”  (1)

Yes, the human biomass is, indeed, connecting at an ever increasing pace.  The day is likely coming when we begin to embed our respective individualities into one seamless hive-mind with the help of some kind of implantable “augmented reality” gizmo.  But what would be the psychological savvy of this global meta-mind if we (its constituent mind-parts) still don’t know what/who we are?

“The transition from cell, to cell society, to animal organism is an old story in evolution: individuals group into societies, which themselves become individuals.” (2)

If we are, indeed, heading for some digital Brahman-state, it’s time to look within yourself before Earth reinvents us all again, before the interplay of evolutionary and technological trends starts to recruit our respective selves, like cells, into a planet-wide society of consciousness.  

A noosphere unaware of itself is like Wal-Mart with empty shelves.  What would be the point?

Ask yourself: "Who am I?" and "Am I connecting to others on the basis of difference or similarity?"

Notes:

Noosphere (source: wiki): 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).

Reference:

1, 2: “What is Life?” (Lynn Margulis & Dorian Sagan, 2000)