The “global brain” is the name given to the emerging intelligent network that is formed by all people on this planet together with the computers, knowledge bases, and communication links that connect them together.
The global brain can be conceived most fundamentally as a higher level of evolution, the way humans form a higher level of organization that evolved out of the animals.
Examples of metasystem 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 than its human components, seems a prime example of such a metasystem transition.
The intelligence of the global brain will be collective, as it arises from the interactions between millions of individuals.
People will live in symbiosis with this surrounding network of technological systems, and out of this symbiosis a higher level intelligence will emerge.
Gaia and the superorganism will evolve to a state of symbiosis that may eventually lead to a merging of the two. Thus, the global brain would not only form a brain for humanity, but for the whole of Planet Earth.
As ideas (“memes”) are communicated from person to person, they evolve, assimilating the contributions and points of views of myriad individuals. Thus, society already has a kind of collective mind, constantly developing new thoughts that cannot be traced back to any individual contribution.
The web functions like a huge associative memory for society.
The greater ease with which good ideas can spread over the whole planet will make it easier to reach global consensus about issues that concern everybody.
The global brain itself will provide universal access to all of humanity’s knowledge, and thus indirectly increase people’s freedom to choose their own path, while providing them with more equal opportunities. Its effect on the economy will directly create more wealth, and indirectly resources to invest in medical care, education, safety measures, etc. Its support for the creation of new knowledge will boost science and technology, and thus help them to solve the most pressing medical, social, and ecological problems in a much shorter time span.
The global brain is controlled by all the people that are part of it. It is not an autonomous system that could suddenly decide no longer to obey commands. The global brain’s intelligence, indeed its “mind” or “personality,” emerges from the actions of all people collectively.