Noospheric Consciousness

* Article: Noospheric consciousness: integrating neural models of consciousness and of the web. By Shima Beigi and Francis Heylighen. WebSci ’21 Companion, June 21–25, 2021, Virtual Event, United Kingdom, 2021

URL = https://biblio.vub.ac.be/vubirfiles/68269042/websci21companion_15_1.pdf

ABSTRACT

"The world-wide web has been conceptualized as a global brain for humanity due to its neural network-like organization. To determine whether this global brain could exhibit features associated with consciousness, we review three neuroscientific theories of consciousness: information integration, adaptive resonance and global workspace. These theories propose that conscious states are characterized by a globally circulating, resonant pattern of activity that is sufficiently coherent to be examined and reflected upon. We then propose a correspondence between this notion and Teilhard de Chardin’s concept of the noosphere as a forum for collective thinking, and explore some implications of this self-organizing dynamics for the evolution of shared, global understanding."