I. The Net
A. "Already the Internet has proved capable of evolving into a much more complex and diverse structure than that contemplated by its original creators . . ."
a. language, the printing press, computer networks
i. developmental
ii. evolution
ii. terministic screen stretched
B. human creative acts
a. making of new technologies
i. become mechanisms of nature
ii. human acts give nature a cumulative agency
II. Language Links
a. "As more and more nations of the world move into the Information Age, the technology of communications and information processing will dramatically affect the human race, as we become increasingly integrated through the burgeoning network of electronic synapses. . . "
i. stretches networks
b. "The first major step toward interconnection came with the development of verbal language. This led to a profound and fundamental change in the way we gained knowledge about the world. All other creatures (with the possible exception of whales and dolphins) learn primarily from their own experience of life. A dog learns through what happens to it in its own life, it does not benefit significantly from the experiences of other dogs elsewhere in the world. But with the advent of symbolic language human beings could begin to share experiences and so learn not only from their own lives but also from others."
i. normal description
c. "This was a major evolutionary leap, as significant perhaps as the appearance of sexual reproduction 2 billion years ago. Two cells could come together and through the exchange of genetic information share their hereditory data-banks -- a breakthrough which, as we have seen, allowed new species to emerge thousands of times faster. Similarly, through language, human beings can exchange their own experiences and learnings, and the result has been a similar leap in the rate of evolution."
i. evolution
ii. typical description
d. "Language had allowed us to shift from biological evolution to the much faster evolution of mind. Not only did our ability to learn from each other enhance our individual lives, it also led us into the whole new arena of group evolution. We had become a collective learning system, building a collective body of knowledge that far exceeded the experience of any individual, but which any individual could, in principle access. Through language we had made the step from isolated organisms to a collective organism -- much as a billion years ago single cells came to together to make the first multicellular creatures."
i. stretches evolution
III. The Emerging Global Brain
a. "Is this Gaia growing herself a nervous system? The changes that this will bring will be so great that their full impact may well be beyond our imagination. No longer will we perceive ourselves as isolated individuals; we will know ourselves to be a part of a rapidly integrating global network, the nerve cells of an awakened global brain.
Discussion Point
If the peculiar power of the religious connects the existential reality to values of a community to make persuasive claims, what sort of ethics are implied by Russell's personification of Gaia?
Is this "sacred" or "religious"?