Science of the Noosphere
= project by Human Energy, directed by David Sloan Wilson, to update the shift towards the Noosphere, originally outlined by Vernadsky and Pierre Teilhard de Chardin.
URL = https://www.humanenergy.io/science-of-the-noosphere-series/science-of-the-noosphere
Description
"Human Energy initiated this project, Science of the Noosphere, to conduct research that would place the ideas described in Chapter 10 — titled “The Formation of the Noosphere: A Plausible Biological Interpretation of Human History” — on solid scientific ground. You can find an excellent illustrated explanation of the noosphere’s central ideas on another part of this site. Teilhard foresaw — even in an age when computers were rare, still filling large rooms, and television was in its infancy — that electronic information and communication technologies would inevitably merge, bringing humanity together in collective consciousness.
He envisioned a superorganism, consisting of human culture and technology, that encircled the planet in a sphere of thought, as described here:
- “Thus we find ourselves in the presence, in actual possession, of the superorganism we have been seeking, of whose existence we were intuitively aware. The collective mankind which the sociologists needed for the furtherance of their speculations and formulations now appears scientifically defined, manifesting itself in its proper time and place, like an object entirely new and yet awaited in the sky of life. It remains for us to observe the world by the light it sheds, which throws into astonishing relief the great ensemble of everyday phenomena with which we have always lived, without perceiving their reality, their immediacy or their vastness.” Science of the Noosphere is an effort to “observe the world by the light it sheds” — based on scientific research and real world events that have taken place in the 75 years since Teilhard wrote his essay. The scientists, historians, psychologists, economists, and philosophers who participate in these conversations each bring their own perspectives to bear on “the great ensemble of everyday phenomena with which we’ve always lived.”
Teilhard regarded his purely scientific worldview as a metamorphosis of the Christian religion, capable of evolving a harmonious society at the global scale. This gave his writing an uplifting quality that causes him to be widely read and beloved to this day. He has largely been forgotten by scientists, however, even though he was highly respected as a scientist during his day.
That’s a shame, because many of Teilhard’s predictions about the future of humanity are coming to pass. The time has come to place his concept of the Noosphere on a modern scientific foundation.
The project is directed by David Sloan Wilson, one of the foremost living evolutionary scientists who, like Teilhard, includes all aspects of humanity in addition to the biological world as within his scientific purview. He is collaborating on the project with filmmaker Alan Honick. The research being conducting under Science of the Noosphere will serve as the basis for a documentary film, currently in development.
In this series of video conversations, Wilson interviews some of the world’s greatest scientists and intellectuals on the full arc of Teilhard’s vision."
(https://www.humanenergy.io/science-of-the-noosphere-series/science-of-the-noosphere)