Global Brain: The Evolution of Mass Mind from the Big Bang to the 21st Century Export

@book{citeulike:699494, abstract = {When did big-picture optimism become cool again? While not blind to potential problems and glitches, \_Global Brain: The Evolution of Mass Mind From the Big Bang to the 21st Century\_ confidently asserts that our networked culture is not only inevitable but essential for our species' survival and eventual migration into space. Author Howard Bloom, believed by many to be R. Buckminster Fuller's intellectual heir, takes the reader on a dizzying tour of the universe, from its original subatomic particle network to the unimaginable data-processing power of intergalactic communication. His writing is smart and snappy, moving with equal poise through the depiction of frenzied bacteria passing along information packets in the form of DNA and that of nomadic African tribespeople putting their heads together to find water for the next year. The reader is swept up in Bloom's vision of the power of mass minds and before long can't help seeing the similarities between ecosystems, street gangs and the Internet. Were Bloom not so learned and well. respected--over a third of his book is devoted to notes and references and luminaries from Lynn Margulis to Richard Metzger have lined up behind him--it would be tempting to dismiss him as a crank. His enthusiasm, the grand scale of his thinking and his transcendence of traditional academic disciplines can be daunting but the new outlook yielded to the persistent is simultaneously exciting and humbling. Bloom takes the old-school sci-fi dystopian vision of group thinking and turns it around--\_Global Brain\_ predicts that our future's going to be less like the Borg and more like a great party. --\_Rob Lightner\_}, author = {Bloom, Howard}, citeulike-article-id = {699494}, citeulike-linkout-0 = {http://www.amazon.ca/exec/obidos/redirect?tag=citeulike09-20&path=ASIN/0471419192}, citeulike-linkout-1 = {http://www.amazon.de/exec/obidos/redirect?tag=citeulike01-21&path=ASIN/0471419192}, citeulike-linkout-2 = {http://www.amazon.fr/exec/obidos/redirect?tag=citeulike06-21&path=ASIN/0471419192}, citeulike-linkout-3 = {http://www.amazon.jp/exec/obidos/ASIN/0471419192}, citeulike-linkout-4 = {http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/0471419192/citeulike00-21}, citeulike-linkout-5 = {http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/redirect?tag=citeulike07-20&path=ASIN/0471419192}, citeulike-linkout-6 = {http://www.worldcat.org/isbn/0471419192}, citeulike-linkout-7 = {http://books.google.com/books?vid=ISBN0471419192}, citeulike-linkout-8 = {http://www.amazon.com/gp/search?keywords=0471419192&index=books&linkCode=qs}, citeulike-linkout-9 = {http://www.librarything.com/isbn/0471419192}, comment = {Podcast with John Udell in 2008}, day = {03}, howpublished = {Paperback}, isbn = {0471419192}, keywords = {bacteria, community, coordination, evolution, global, group, social}, month = {September}, posted-at = {2008-10-26 17:59:37}, priority = {2}, publisher = {Wiley}, title = {Global Brain: The Evolution of Mass Mind from the Big Bang to the 21st Century}, url = {http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/redirect?tag=citeulike07-20&path=ASIN/0471419192}, year = {2001} }

TY - BOOK ID - citeulike:699494 L3 - citeulike-article-id:699494 N2 - When did big-picture optimism become cool again? While not blind to potential problems and glitches, _Global Brain: The Evolution of Mass Mind From the Big Bang to the 21st Century_ confidently asserts that our networked culture is not only inevitable but essential for our species' survival and eventual migration into space. Author Howard Bloom, believed by many to be R. Buckminster Fuller's intellectual heir, takes the reader on a dizzying tour of the universe, from its original subatomic particle network to the unimaginable data-processing power of intergalactic communication. His writing is smart and snappy, moving with equal poise through the depiction of frenzied bacteria passing along information packets in the form of DNA and that of nomadic African tribespeople putting their heads together to find water for the next year. The reader is swept up in Bloom's vision of the power of mass minds and before long can't help seeing the similarities between ecosystems, street gangs and the Internet. Were Bloom not so learned and well. respected--over a third of his book is devoted to notes and references and luminaries from Lynn Margulis to Richard Metzger have lined up behind him--it would be tempting to dismiss him as a crank. His enthusiasm, the grand scale of his thinking and his transcendence of traditional academic disciplines can be daunting but the new outlook yielded to the persistent is simultaneously exciting and humbling. Bloom takes the old-school sci-fi dystopian vision of group thinking and turns it around--_Global Brain_ predicts that our future's going to be less like the Borg and more like a great party. --_Rob Lightner_ SN - 0471419192 TI - Global Brain: The Evolution of Mass Mind from the Big Bang to the 21st Century PB - Wiley KW - bacteria KW - community KW - coordination KW - evolution KW - global KW - group KW - social N1 - Podcast with John Udell in 2008 AU - Bloom, Howard PY - 2001/09/03/ UR - http://www.amazon.ca/exec/obidos/redirect?tag=citeulike09-20&path=ASIN/0471419192 ER -