Noosphere
The noosphere can be seen as the "sphere of human thought" being derived from the Greek `nous' meaning `mind' in the style of 'atmosphere' and 'biosphere'. Just as the biosphere is composed of all the organisms on Earth and their interactions, the noosphere is composed of all the interacting minds and memes on Earth. The word is also sometimes used to refer to a transhuman consciousness arising from all these interactions - which those who have read Teilhard de Chardin sometimes refer to as the Omega Point, and consider the goal of history.
History of this expression:
E. LeRoy's Les origines humaines et l'evolution de l'intelligence (1928)
Vladimir I. Vernadsky (1863-1945)
Pierre Teilhard de Chardin (1881-1955)
References
- Paul R. Samson and David Pitt (eds.) "The Biosphere and Noosphere Reader: Global Environment, Society and Change" (ISBN 0-415-16644-6)
- World Futures, Volumes 49 (3-4) & 50 (1-4) 1997, Special Issue : "The Quest for a Unified Theory of Information" http://fis.iguw.tuwien.ac.at/fis96/program.html
- Raymond, Eric. "Homesteading the Noosphere"
http://www.tuxedo.org/~esr/writings/cathedral-bazaar/homesteading/ (2000)
See Cyberspace