A CAT-Scan of the Global Brain

[http://www.intentblog.com/author.php?author=Deepak%20Chopra Deepak Chopra] writes:

:…there are more school kids with high IQs in China than there are school kids in the United States. Or that a single week of the New York Times contains more information than the average person absorbed in a lifetime in the 18th century. The overall message is that the world is changing exponentially. Information doubles every couple of years while the price of computers gets cut in half. If such trends continue, the market will produce a $1,000 computer in our lifetime with more capacity than the human brain.
::—”’Shift happens”’

In part 2, Chopra continues to say:
:…When it first came into usage, “the global brain” seemed like only a metaphor. But the more we learn about how the human brain functions, the more convincing the parallels are in real life. In many ways each of us is participating in a brain without borders, one that encompasses humankind. I’d like to focus on several striking similarities between individual and ”’collective intelligence”’.
::—”’Reality is shaped by perception”’

And in part 3, he states:
:…Trying to understand the global brain with the same objectivity that science explores the human brain is difficult, because every society is enmeshed in the global brain. None of us occupies a privileged position outside and apart. Our personal perceptions are often overwhelmed by influences from collective consciousness — this is why so few people are able to separate themselves from fear of terrorism, for example, and why the vast majority don’t even try. Yet the more objectively we observe the global brain, the more understanding it yields.
:Let me continue with describing some of the salient features that are common to an individual brain and the global brain.

::—”’The entire brain is invisibly correlated”’

Some other key points:
*The ”’global brain”’ is more than the sum of all individual brains. It’s ”’a web of collective intelligence”’…
*…that the global brain is taking ”’an evolutionary leap”’ at this very minute…
*…It’s been estimated that as many as a million new connections are formed per minute during this phase. If something like that is happening on a global scale, ”’two massive trends are colliding”’.…
*…”’One trend is downward”’. It consists of everything calamitous that one reads about in the newspaper: global warming, epidemic disease, political upheaval, warring religions, and a tide of refugees extending beyond old national boundaries.…
*…”’The other trend is upward”’, and it comes down to ”’the exponential expansion of intelligence”’.…
*…There’s a lot more to say about the global brain and where it’s heading. But even from this snapshot, ”’one gains new hope”’.…

Read the complete series on:
#[http://www.intentblog.com/archives/2007/10/a_catscan_of_th.html A CAT-Scan of the Global Brain (Part 1)].
#[http://www.intentblog.com/archives/2007/11/a_catscan_of_th_1.html A CAT-Scan of the Global Brain (Part 2)].
#[http://www.intentblog.com/archives/2007/11/a_catscan_of_th_2.html A CAT-Scan of the Global Brain (Part 3)].
#[http://www.intentblog.com/archives/2007/11/a_catscan_of_th_3.html A CAT-Scan of the Global Brain (Part 4)].