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The Social Superorganism and its Global Brain

Society can be viewed as a multicellular organism, with individuals in
the role of the cells. The network of communication channels connecting
individuals then plays the role of a nervous system for this
superorganism, i.e. a "global brain".

It is an old idea, dating back at least to the ancient Greeks, that the
whole of human society can be viewed as a single organism. Many
thinkers have noticed the similarity between the roles played by
different organizations in society and the functions of organs, systems
and circuits in the body. For example, industrial plants extract energy
and building blocks from raw materials, just like the digestive system.
Roads, railways and waterways transport these products from one part of
the system to another one, just like the arteries and veins. Garbage
dumps and sewage systems collect waste products, just like the colon
and the bladder. The army and police protect the society against
invaders and rogue elements, just like the immune system.

Such initially vague analogies become more precise as the understanding
of organisms increases. The concepts of systems theory provide a good
framework for establishing a precise correspondence between organismic
and societal functions. The fact that complex organisms, like our own
bodies, are built up from individual cells, led to the concept of
superorganism. If cells aggregate to form a multicellular organism,
then organisms might aggregate to form an organism of organisms: a
superorganism. Biologists agree that social insect colonies, such as
ant nests or beehives, are best seen as such superorganisms. The
activities of a single ant, bee or termite are meaningless unless they
are understood in function of the survival of the colony.

Individual humans may seem similar to the cells of a social
superorganism, but they are still much more independent than ants or
cells (Heylighen & Campbell, 1995). This is especially clear if we look
at the remaining competition, conflicts and misunderstandings between
individuals and groups. Thus human society is still an ambivalent
system, balancing between individual selfishness and collective
responsibility. In that sense it may be more similar to organisms like
slime molds or sponges, whose cells can live individually as well as
collectively, than to true multicellular organisms. However, there
seems to be a continuing trend towards global integration. As
technological and social systems develop into a more closely knit
tissue of interactions, transcending the old boundaries between
countries and cultures, the social superorganism seems to turn from a
metaphor into a reality. Although many people tend to see the
super-organism philosophy as a totalitarian or collectivist ideology,
the opposite is true: further integration will basically increase
individual freedom and diversity.

Most recently, the technological revolution has produced a global
communication network, which can be seen as a nervous system for this
planetary being. As the computer network becomes more intelligent it
starts to look more like a global brain or super-brain, with
capabilities far surpassing those of individual people (see our page on
learning, brain-like webs for an experimental approach to make the net
more intelligent). This is part of an evolutionary transition to a
higher level of complexity. A remaining question is whether this
transition will lead to the integration of the whole of humanity,
producing a human "super-being", or merely enhance the capabilities of
individuals, thus producing a multitude of "meta-beings".

In order to study these different issues, the "Global Brain Group" has
been created. Its members include most of the authors that have written
on the subject. Their works and others are listed in the global brain
bibliography. Their discussion have inspired a Global Brain FAQ, i.e. a
list of answers to the most common questions raised by this subject.

Copyright© 2000 Principia Cybernetica:

http://pespmc1.vub.ac.be

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