* PhD Thesis: Global Brain Singularity:. Universal history, future evolution and humanity's dialectical horizon. By Cadell N. Last. Vrije Universiteit Brussel Faculty of Arts and Philosophy, Doctoral School of Human Sciences.

URL = https://cadelllast.files.wordpress.com/2018/11/phd-thesis-articles-pdf.pdf

Global brain as mechanism for global commons (p. 190)

Description

"This work attempts to approach an understanding of global brain singularity through a logical meditation on temporal dynamics of universal process. Global brain singularity is conceived of as a future metasystem of human civilization representing a higher qualitative coherence of order. To better understand the potentiality space of this phenomenon we start with an overview of universal history with the tools of big history and cosmic evolution. These forms of knowledge situate the presence of modern humans in relation to a material complexification from big bang to global civilization. In studying the patterns of complexification throughout universal history, including the evolutionary structure of the physical order, the evolutionary structure of the biological order, and the evolutionary structure of the cultural order, we focus attention on how these patterns may inform reasoned discussion on the contemporary evolution of human society. Human society in the 21st century is struggling to understand the meaning of technological complexification and global convergence but if situated within universal history both processes may be discussed from a fresh perspective.

From developing an understanding of universal history for the present moment we shift focus to the structure of historical human metasystems. Thus, from situating humans in the context of the cosmos as a whole we shift to situating humans in the context of our species being as a whole. Throughout the history of the human species our system has evolved from local hunter-gatherer bands to a global interconnected network of nation-states and international organizations. In order to explain the emergence of these higher order structures we propose a theory of human metasystems informed from concepts useful in application to universal historical dynamics which revolve around information, energy and control. The central hypothesis forwarded suggests the idea that circular systemic processes emerge and stabilize from new information mediums allowing for the controlled regulation of new energy flows. In light of this analysis we attempt to theoretically mediate global civilization with new concepts relevant to the future of politics, economics and psychosocial life in general. This paradigm can be broadly understood under the framework of a ‘commons’.

In this context analysis shifts from the structure of human metasystems to the nature of human evolution from the perspective of the evolutionary agents of the process: human beings. Human beings in this analysis are conceptualized as biocultural agents subject to the interacting and entangled processes of biological evolution and cultural evolution. Here we attempt to understand the way in which growth and reproduction operate in the human organism. We furthermore attempt to understand how these processes may continue to operate in a future metasystem organization which allows for the emergence of a background radically different from either our natural or societal background. In these speculations we focus attention on the idea of a potential emergence of a new ‘technocultural’ evolutionary process that allows for a new level of freedom for consciousness radically liberated from its historical constraints. From this perspective we attempt to engage a rich literature of speculations about the future of intelligence and consciousness in the universe as a whole. This speculation is structured by the idea that there may be two potential general pathways for intelligence and consciousness, a pathway of transcendent expansion into the macro universe, or a pathway of transcendent compression into the micro universe.

Finally, we leave universal history and future evolution as expressed in the conceptual structure of this work and reflectively bring our attention back to the internal depths of the present moment for historical consciousness. The most fundamental nature of this present moment for consciousness is proposed to be the dualistic structure of subject-object division or difference (the inside and outside of conscious experience). In order to approach the nature and paradoxes of the subjective and the objective we reflectively inscribe the existence of major forms of knowledge as particular strategies for dealing with or working with the nature of this fundamental division or difference on an experiential-emotional level. We then attempt to understand the possible functions for the internalization of knowledge in history and develop an ontology that can handle the radical inclusion of epistemology. This brings us to an attempt to understand the territory of the map in-itself. The geometrical territory of these maps is then analyzed from the perspective of this author with the aid of phenomenologically grounded logical dialectics and left to the reader for reflective contemplation. We then end or conclude with a dialectically informed speculation on how we could interpret the global brain singularity when we are capable of also thinking the eternal present of phenomenology which stresses the inclusion of all observers." (https://cadelllast.files.wordpress.com/2018/11/phd-thesis-articles-pdf.pdf?)

3.1 Metasystem Transitions (p. 112)
3.2 Human Metasystem Transitions (p. 114)
3.2.1 Emergence of bands/tribes (p. 116)
3.2.2 Emergence of chiefdoms/kingdoms (p. 117)
3.2.3 Emergence of nation-states (p. 119)
3.3 Future human metasystem transition (p. 120)
3.4 Summary of human metasystem transition theory (p. 123)

Chapter 4: Control Dynamics of Human Metasystems (p. 134)

4.1 Complexity and control (p. 134)
4.2 Theoretical foundations of a global control transition (p. 137)
4.2.1 Metasystem and control (p. 137)
4.2.2 Control information theory (p. 139)
4.3 A tool for human control transitions (p. 142)
4.4 Theoretical speculations regarding future contours of control (p. 144)

Chapter 5: Global Brain and the Future of Human Society (p. 150)

5.1 Global Brain (p. 150)
5.2 Challenge propagation (p. 151)
5.2.1 Speculations on future governance and religion (p. 155)

Chapter 6: Global Commons in the Global Brain (p. 162)

6.1 Technological revolution/disruption is near (but what about our response?) (p.162)
6.2 Technological revolution/disruption as global brain singularity (p. 168)
6.3 Towards a commonist discourse (p. 175)
6.4 Global Brain as Mechanism for the Global Commons (p. 190)
6.5 A revolutionary political-economy (p. 201)

Part 3: Signs of a New Evolution (p. 208)

Chapter 7: Biocultural Theory of Human Reproduction (p. 210)

7.1 The question of life extension (p. 210)
7.2 Human growth and reproduction (p. 211)
7.3 Life history theory and human evolution (p. 213)
7.4 Modern world (p. 215)
7.5 Into the future (p. 217)
7.6 Reproduction, given radical life extension (p. 221)

Chapter 8: Atechnogenesis and Technocultural Evolution (p. 228)

8.1 Problematizing the singularity metaphor (p. 228)
8.2 Singularity as emergence of new evolutionary pathway (p. 229)
8.3 Towards a theory of Atechnogenesis (p. 236)
8.4 Speculations on the technocultural era (p. 242)

Chapter 9: Deep Future, Evolutionary Developmental Pathways (p. 258)

9.1 Possible knowledge of the deep future (p. 258)
9.2 Final frontier: expansion hypothesis (p. 259)
9.3 Final frontier: compression hypothesis (p. 268)

Part 4: Field of 21st Century Knowledge (p. 288)

Chapter 10: Non-Monist Framework for the Emergence and Reconciliation of SubjectObject Division (p. 290)

10.1 Introduction: Subject-object division and knowledge (p. 290)
10.2 Contextualizing contemporary theory (p. 292)
10.3 Building towards new theoretical architecture (p. 295)
10.4 Working higher order theoretical architecture (p. 300)
10.5 Note on the sexual real (p. 305)
10.5 Consequences, final thoughts (p. 308)

Chapter 11: Symbolic Orders and Structure of Universal Internalization (p. 316)

11.1 Narrativization of universal evolution (p. 316)
11.2 Evolution of narrativistic internalization (p. 320)
11.3 Research for narrativistic internalization (p. 324)
11.4 Higher order understanding of internalization (p. 328)
11.5 Radical speculation on the nature of freedom (p. 333)

Chapter 12: A Reflective Note for Dialectical Thinkers (p. 342)

12.1 Between deconstruction and metalanguage (p. 342)
12.2 Metaontology: maps as territory (p. 347)
12.2.1 Let us get personal (p. 349)
12.2.1.1 Plato (p. 349)
12.2.1.2 Hegel (p. 350)
12.2.1.3 Lacan (p. 353)
12.2.1.4 Žižek (p. 356)
12.2.2 Archaeology of the real’s knowledge (p. 361)
12.3 Dialectical foundations (p. 364)
12.4 Dialectical structure of our century (p. 372)
12.4.1 The Absolute (p. 377)

Chapter 13: Dialectical Approach to Singularity (p. 384)

13.1 Singularity inclusive of subjectivity (p. 384)
13.2 Consciousness and universal history (p. 394)

Conclusion: Universal history, deep future, eternal present (p. 408)

Global Brain and Universal History

Contents