Everything about Noosphere totally explained
In the thought of
Vladimir Vernadsky and
Teilhard de Chardin, the
noosphere can be seen as the "
sphere of human thought" being derived from the
Greek νούς ("
nous") meaning "
mind" +
σφαίρα (
sfaira) meaning "
sphere", in the style of "
atmosphere" and "
biosphere". In the original theory of
Vernadsky, the noosphere is the third in a succession of phases of development of the Earth, after the
geosphere (inanimate matter) and the
biosphere (biological life). Just as the emergence of life fundamentally transformed the geosphere, the emergence of human
cognition fundamentally transforms the biosphere. In contrast to the conceptions of the
Gaia theorists, or the promoters of
cyberspace, Vernadsky's noosphere emerges at the point where humankind, through the mastery of nuclear processes, begins to create resources through the
transmutation of elements.
For Teilhard, the noosphere is best described as a sort of 'collective consciousness' of human-beings. It emerges from the interaction of human minds. The noosphere has grown in step with the organization of the human mass in relation to itself as it populates the earth. As mankind organizes itself in more complex
social networks, the higher the noosphere will grow in awareness. This is an extension of Teilhard's
Law of Complexity/Consciousness, the law describing the nature of evolution in the universe.
Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, added that the noosphere is growing towards an even greater integration and unification, culminating in the
Omega Point—which he saw as the goal of history.
The noosphere concept of 'unification' was elaborated in popular science fiction by
Julian May in the
Galactic Milieu Series. It is also the reason Teilhard is often called the patron saint of the Internet.
History of concept
One of the original aspects of the noosphere concept deals with
evolution.
Henri Bergson (1907) was one of the first to propose that evolution is 'creative' and can't necessarily be explained solely by Darwinian natural selection.
L'évolution créatrice is upheld, according to Bergson, by a constant
vital force that animates life and fundamentally connects mind and body, an idea opposing the dualism of
René Descartes. In 1923,
C. Lloyd Morgan took this work further, elaborating on an '
emergent evolution' that could explain increasing
complexity (including the evolution of mind). Morgan found that many of the most interesting changes in living things have been largely discontinuous with past evolution, and therefore didn't necessarily take place through a gradual process of natural selection. Rather, evolution experiences jumps in complexity (such as the emergence of a self-reflective universe, or noosphere). Finally, the complexification of human cultures, particularly language, facilitated a quickening of evolution in which cultural evolution occurs more rapidly than biological evolution. Recent understanding of human ecosystems and of human impact on the biosphere have led to a link between the notion of sustainability with the "co-evolution" [Norgaard,1994] and harmonization of cultural and biological evolution.
The resulting political system has been referred to as a
noocracy.
American
integral theorist Ken Wilber deals with this third evolution of the noosphere. In his work,
Sex, Ecology, Spirituality (1995), he builds many of his arguments on the emergence of the noosphere and the continued emergence of further evolutionary structures.
U.S. Politician
Lyndon LaRouche, and his political organization, has published many articles, pamphlets, and short books pertaining to the importance of the Noosphere in human development.
History of this expression:
Other uses
The software used at
PlanetMath is named "
Noösphere".
A rock band hailing from Philadelphia, PA goes by the name of Noosphere.
Ambient dance group
The Orb, in the track 'O.O.B.E.' from the album
U.F.Orb, use a sample from the reading of
New Pathways to Psychology by Colin Wilson, who discusses the concept of the Noösphere.
Further Information
Get more info on 'Noosphere'.
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