Wells – Public Intelligence Blog

This lengthy piece is organized as follows:

1) Chuck Spinney on how our partisan “leaders” are disconnected from reality and leading us over a cliff, with reference to John Boyd.

2. An extract and link to the always brilliant CounterPunch where David Michael Green discusses the core issue: Can America be salvaged?

3. A Phi Beta Iota editorial commentary on Thomas Kuhn (The Structure of Scientific Revolutions), Robert Steele (Paradigms of Failure, Data Pathologies), and Howard Zinn (A Power Governments Cannot Repress).

CHUCK SPINNEY: The article in Counterpunch by David Michael Green, “Can America be Salvaged?” is an brilliant expository argument describing what are in effect the destructive outcomes of self-referencing/incestuously amplifying OODA loops that are becoming ever more disconnected from reality.

Continue reading “Journal: Spinney, Boyd, Green, Kuhn on “Can America Be Salvaged?–Public Intelligence Aspects””

2006/04/062009/12/04

Review: World Brain (Essay Index Reprint Series) (Hardcover)

6 Star Top 10%, Consciousness & Social IQ, Education (General)

Essential to Thinking About Collective Intelligence,

April 6, 2006

H. G. Wells

Edit of 16 Jan 07 to add links.

This volume, reprinted in the 1990's with a superb introductory essay, is still a gem, and extremely relevant to the emerging dialog about Collective Intelligence that includes the works of people like Howard Bloom (Global Brain), Pierre Levy (Collective Intelligence), Howard Rheingold (Smart Mobs), and James Surowieki (The Wisdom of the Crowds).

Global Brain: The Evolution of Mass Mind from the Big Bang to the 21st Century
Collective Intelligence: Mankind's Emerging World in Cyberspace
Smart Mobs: The Next Social Revolution
The Wisdom of Crowds

The Internet has finally made possible the vision of H. G. Wells, as well as the vision of Quincy Wright (who called for a World Intelligence Center in the 1950's, using only open sources of information).

This specific work is the first brick in a global networked brain that is also linked to eliminating poverty and war and producing what Alvin and Heidi Toffler call “Revolutionary Wealth” (also the title of their book coming out in April 2006). Thomas Stewart (“Wealth of Knowledge”) and Barry Carter (“Infinite Wealth”) are among my other heros in this specific genre of the literature. See my List on Collective Intelligence, and my reviews of all these other books.

Revolutionary Wealth: How it will be created and how it will change our lives
The Wealth of Knowledge: Intellectual Capital and the Twenty-first Century Organization
Infinite Wealth: A New World of Collaboration and Abundance in the Knowledge Era

Published since my view, and highly pertinent:
The Wealth of Networks: How Social Production Transforms Markets and Freedom
The Fortune at the Bottom of the Pyramid: Eradicating Poverty Through Profits (Wharton School Publishing Paperbacks)

2000/05/292009/12/04

Review: World Brain

5 Star, Consciousness & Social IQ, Culture, Research, Decision-Making & Decision-Support, Democracy, Economics, Education (General), Education (Universities), Future, History, Information Operations, Information Society, Intelligence (Collective & Quantum), Intelligence (Commercial), Intelligence (Extra-Terrestrial), Intelligence (Government/Secret), Intelligence (Public), Intelligence (Wealth of Networks), Misinformation & Propaganda, Philosophy, Strategy

Updated Edition is Even Better,

May 29, 2000

H. G. Wells

First published in 1938, a modern edition is vastly improved by the addition of a critical introduction by Alan Mayne. Very much focused on how a world-brain might alter national policy-making, how Public Opinion or an “Open Conspiracy” might restore common sense and popular control to arenas previously reserved for an elite. The information functionality of the World Brain easily anticipated the world wide web as it might evolve over the next 20-30 years: comprehensive, up to date, distributed, classification scheme, dynamic, indexes, summaries and surveys, freely available and easily accessible. We have a long way to go, but the framework is there. The communication functions of the world brain would include a highly effective information retrieval system, selective dissemination of information, efficient communication facilities, effective presentation, popular education, public and individual awareness for all issues, and facilitate social networking between organizations, groups, and individuals. The world brain is the “virtual intelligence community” qua noosphere. This is one of the fundamental references for anyone thinking about the future of politics, economics, or social systems.