By Jonathan Bethel - http://omegapoint.org

With the convenience of modern telecommunications and cyber technology, it
is now possible to interact and communicate with anyone in the world
instantly. The distance gap between people has been closed and now brain can
speak to brain directly. Vast webs of knowledge are now being created
through the collaborative sharing of ideas. The many nodes and
interconnections of this global network are rapidly increasing and
proliferating throughout society. Many speculate that this super network is
the central nervous system of the burgeoning global brain. According to
futurists, this sheath of technology covering the planet, this technosphere,
is the material basis of the now awakening Noosphere, earth's mental
envelope or field. The word noosphere derives from the Greek "noos", or
"nous", and means mind, while "Sphere", or "spheria," of course means globe.
It is therefore the globe of thought, and includes all knowledge of
collective humanity. This is a similar to Carl Jung's collective
unconscious.
The Noosphere can be thought of as the complete and assimilated
morphogenetic field of the planet, the integration of all knowledge
ecologies. Decades before the advent of the internet and long before the
World Wide Web, Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, a Jesuit priest and
paleontologist, promoted the idea of the Noosphere. Chardin said, "We are
faced with a harmonized collectivity of consciousnesses to a sort of
superconciousness. The earth not only becoming covered by myriads of grains
of thought, but becoming enclosed in a single thinking envelope, a single
unanimous reflection... for. no one can deny that a network (a world
network) of economic and psychic affiliations is being woven at ever
increasing speed which envelops and constantly penetrates more deeply within
each of us. With every day that passes it becomes a little more impossible
for us to act or think otherwise than collectively." These seemingly
prophetic words take on substantive evidence when we consider how modern man
is inextricably connected to each other through a sprawling global
information network that is increasing its interconnectivity and bandwidth
daily. Is it possible that our machines and scientific insights are moving
society towards the attractor that Chardin called the "Omega Point", a
technological/spiritual singularity?
The Biosphere
According to Chardin and the Russian scholar and biologist Vladimir
Ivanovich Verdansky, the planet is in a transformative process,
metamorphosizing from the biosphere into the noosphere. The biosphere -
literally the sphere of life - is the region for the transformation of
cosmic energy on earth. It is a thin membrane or envelope of life which
covers the crust of the earth, including oceanic basins, mountain ranges,
and areas of the atmosphere where life is found. It is complex evolving form
that is adaptive to external and internal forces and can be thought of as a
homogenous entity or whole system. Verdansky defined the biosphere as,"the
single greatest geologic force on earth, moving, processing, and recycling
several billion tons of mass a year. It is the central subsystem of a
centralized cybernetic system, Earth, which tends towards a dynamic
disequilibrium and tremendous internal diversity."
Through accelerated biochemical combustion and the release of "free energy",
the biosphere has become a major geological shaping force within nature,
extruding the sprawling technosphere. This artificial technosphere will
culminate eventually in the awakened noosphere, the sphere of thought and
its collective intelligence. According to Verdansky, the noosphere is
currently surrounding the earth, yet it remains unconscious and operating on
habit. When it becomes fully conscious it will invoke a new field of
awareness with new possibilities and new horizons. Chardin believes that the
concept of the New Jerusalem in the bible is a reflections of this world
beyond history.
Verdansky termed this transformative phase in biospheric evolution the
"Psychozoic Era." This is an era in geologic time when the biosphere becomes
a major shaping force on the planet, extending all of its primary functions
by use of mechanical devices.
The Techno Sphere
The transition form the biosphere to the noosphere takes place through an
intermediary stage called the technosphere. The technosphere is the
artificial sheath of technology that emerged from the biosphere and now
encircles the globe. It is atransitional stage and is the mechanism and
catalyst whereby the noosphere comes into being. The technosphere is
comprised of the global financial markets and the military-industrial
complex with their globe girding information network. Due to the release of
large amounts of chemicals and radiation by the activity of technosphere,
the biosphere has entered a phase of biochemical combustion. This is an
"acceleration of biogenic migration of atoms precipitating biospheric crisis
as a prelude to the advent of the noosphere; characterized by exponential
curves of human population, machine, and money at the expense of biospheric
integrity and stability," as stated by Dr. Jose Arguelles. In geological
time, man's brief race from the jungle to the cities represents only a flash
in the galactic pan; however, these several thousand years represent the
emergence of man with his newly found information technologies from the
misty background of animal organization.
If we look back through history we see the thread of progressive thought
that leads from the African grasslands of our archaic past to the data
clusters of information that we call cyberspace. The first major
breakthrough in interconnectedness came with the advent of verbal language.
This represented a major breakthrough for the biosphere, for then we not
onlt knew the contents of our own mind, but also the contents of anothers
through communication. The shared knowledge base of the tribe formed and
grew considerably. Now there existed a field of knowledge that could be
accessed by most members of the tribe. This, in addition to a primitive tool
technology, extended our physical force over nature and greatly aided the
developed the human species, giving them an exponential edge over the rest
of the animal kingdom.
The next major development came with the written word and its trans-temporal
ability to convey knowledge. Both written and oral language gave us the
ability to shift from the genetic selection of the past into to the
epigenetic phenomena of writing, philosophy, music, and poetry, the fabric
of culture. Language allowed us to transform from biological evolution to
mental evolution. Whole systems of thought began to form and flourish
throughout the world. The accelerated growth of knowledge was fueled by
several inventions, most notably, the printing press. With the advent of the
printing press in the 15th century, previously ardous handwritten documents
could now be churned out for the masses by mechanical means, greatly
expanding and ramifying information. The interconnectedness and
proliferation of knowledge intensified as the age of reason began to dawn.
With the advent of the industrial revolution merged with the discoveries in
science in the 19th and early 20th century, mankind leaped forward into a
multimedia explosion of information, through radio, television, telephones,
movies and photographs. Information and knowledge was growing now at a
phenomenal rate and began to gain tremendous momentum. The military
industrial complex and global financial markets fueled the spread of the
techno sheath, the membrane that would aggrandize into the technosphere in
the second half of the 20th century.
According to Dr. Jose Arguelles, the technosphere was heralded by the Atomic
blast at Hiroshima, marking the birth of the now complete technosphere and
the beginning of the cold war. Since 1945, the technosphere has spread over
the earth like a progressive cancer, promoting its globalist agenda wherever
it found new resources. Thus is the nature of the artificial stage of the
technosphere, which appears as a consumptive destructive marketing machine.
Thus we find ourselves today in a nihilistic trance, confounded by the
myriad of global issues facing our species. It only requires scanning the
evening news to be quickly reminded of the fact that time seems to be
running out for Homo sapiens. It's always darkest before the dawn, they say!
Enter Homo Sapien Cyberneticus!!!
Omega Point and the Noosphere
Chardin saw the awakening of the noosphere as a complete unification of
materiality and spirituality hastened by what he called the Omega Point. He
defined the Omega Point as, "the climatic convergent point of human
evolution as the emergence of the hyper personal." This is a point of full
super conscious global telepathy. The Omega Point is the culmination and
integration of all forms of art, philosophy, culture, and science into a
coherent dynamic singularity. Chardin explains, "Someday, after we have
mastered the winds, the waves, the tides and gravity, we shall harness for
God the energies of love. Then, for the second time in the history of the
world, [hu]mankind will have discovered fire." He goes on further to say,
"By its structure Omega, in its ultimate principle, can only be a distinct
Center radiating at the core of a system of centers; a grouping in which the
personalization of the All and personalizations of the elements reach their
maximum, simultaneously and without merging, under the influence of a
supremely autonomous focus of union." Will the coming mind grids of the
future bring us into a cybernetic spiritual focus? From the viewpoint of
many futurists and transhumanists we are well on our way.
Chardin placed the influence of evolution over that of entropy. Despite the
ever gnawing grind of entropy, information has coalesced itself in our
species and has been carried forward through our information technologies.
Now it appears that information is on the verge of transforming itself, as
well as our species along with it. Transhumanists believe this is the
dawning of the God-Man, Homo Sapien Cyberneticus, the co creator of a new
and more complex technological/spiritual universe. Chardin would agree. He
considered evolution as a series of steps leading to greater and greater
layers of complexity. This is very similar to Terence McKenna's novelty
theory, based off of Alfred White Northhead's mathematical concepts of novel
concrescence. Chardin contended that man represents a force in opposition to
entropy. His Omega Point envisioned the space time continuum as a cone, in
which the point is the outcome of evolutionary intent, the eschaton, omega,
the divine.
For Chardin, the noosphere was the all, a dynamic mosaic of all culture
merged into the hyper personal image of the god self, the next stage of our
evolution. Modern skeptics argue that the noosphere is just a metaphysical
explanation of today's global network, and there is nothing spiritual about
it. However, this interpretation doesn't seem to fit with modern experience.
According to many modern futurist, the global Gaian mind is being hardwired
by the internet and fueled by nodes of spiritual thought, of both futuristic
and archaic flavors.
Concerning the noosphere, Philip K . Dick writes, "due to the incredible
surge of charge from our electronic signals and information rich material
therein, we have given it power to cross a vast threshold; we have, so to
speak, resurrected what Philo and other ancients called the Logos.
Information has, then, become alive..."
According to Niel Freer, "We are at far more of a "turning point" than even
the one Capra envisions; in possession of far more of a "web of
reinforcement" than Baines could hope for; the morphogenetic-field potential
is far higher than Sheldrake predicts; the groundswell documented by
Ferguson is about to become a tsunami, with a capability to take the planet
off hold and will close the "vision gap" in a way that is perhaps more
comprehensive than conceived by Barbara Marx Hubbard."
According to developmental psychologists, an embryo's brain develops in two
stages. The first stage is a multiplying of cells; the second is the
proliferation of interconnectedness of those cells. Realizing that it
requires about 10 billion neurons to comprise a human brain, as the world
nears 10 billion people has the first stage of the global brain formed, and
now the second stage of interconnectedness commenced? As the technosphere
spreads across the earth wrecking havock in its wake, and the global
networks hum with the interchange of data bits, the embryonic collective
mind stirs in its slumber waiting for the proper moment to announce its
awakening.
JMB

Very interesting post, Steve.  I like Teilhard de Chardin, and I enjoyed reading his book 'The Phenomenon of Man', but I think he needlessly 'christianized' his universal vision of evolving towards the omega-point.  Fine, so the guys a jesuit priest, but he should've had the sense to strip his philosophy clean of unnecessary christian references that could turn some people off to his philosophy.   I'm not speaking against christianity per se, but I do remember getting a little annoyed with Teilhard de Chardin for doing this, even though his vision is a beautiful one.

This is a great line from your post, one that should make people think:

'Realizing that it requires about 10 billion neurons to comprise a human brain, as the world nears 10 billion people has the first stage of the global brain formed?'

the correct spelling is "Vernadsky"

You might also enjoy Jumptime by Jean Houston who met Teilhard in Central Park one day. She recounts it was a seminal event for her.

The idea of the 10 billion units causing a quantum leap has much to offer and Cambridge mathematicians in the 70s worked out how this had happened at each stage of the evolution of life.

Like the sponge cells and the slime mold amoeba, you and I are parts of a vast population whose pooled efforts move some larger creature on its path through life. Like the sponge cells, we cannot live in total separation from the human clump. We are components of a superorganism.

excerpted from Howard Bloom's
The Lucifer Principle
A Scientific Expedition Into The Forces of History


Superorganism


It looks like a single being. But it's a society of former individualists...the slime mold.

ver a hundred years ago, Matthius Schleiden, the German botanist, was pondering the recently discovered fact that beings as simple as water fleas and as complex as human beings are made up of individual cells. Each of those cells has all the apparatus necessary to lead a life of its own. It is walled off in its own mini-world by the surrounding hedge of a membrane, carries its own metabolic power plants, and seems quite capable of going about its own business, ruggedly declaring its independence. Yet the individual cells, in pursuing their own goals, cooperate to create an entity much larger than themselves. Schleiden declared that each cell has an individual existence, and that the life of an organism comes from the way in which the cells work together.

In 1858, pathologist Rudolph Virchow took Schleiden's observation a step further. He declared that "the composition of the major organism, the so-called individual, must be likened to a kind of social arrangement or society, in which a number of separate existencies are dependent upon one another, in such a way, however, that each element possesses its own peculiar activity and carries out its own task by its own powers." A creature like you and me, said Virchow, is actually a society of separate cells.

The reasoning also works in reverse--a society acts like an organism. Half a century after Virchow, entomologist William Morton Wheeler was observing the lives of ants. No ant is an island. Wheeler saw the tiny beasts maintaining constant contact, greeting each other as they passed on their walkways, swapping bits of regurgitated food, adopting social roles that ranged from warrior or royal handmaiden to garbage handler and file clerk. (Yes, at the heart of many ant colonies is a room to which all incoming workers bring their discoveries. Seated at the chamber's center is a staff of insect bureaucrats who examine the new find, determine where it is needed in the colony, and send it off to the queen's chamber if it is a prized morsel, to the nursery if it is ordinary nourishment, to the construction crews if it would make good mortar, or to the garbage heap kept just outside the nest.)

Viewed from the human perspective, the activities of the individual ants seemed to matter far less than the behavior of the colony as a whole. In fact, the colony acted as if it were an independent creature, feeding itself, expelling its wastes, defending itself, and looking out for its future. Wheeler was the man who dubbed a group of individuals collectively acting like one beast a superorganism.

The term superorganism slid into obscurity until it was revived by Sloan-Kettering head Lewis Thomas in his influential 1974 book Lives Of A Cell. Superorganisms exist even on the very lowest rungs of the evolutionary ladder. Slime mold are seemingly independent amoeba, microscopic living blobs who race about on the moist surface of a decaying tree or rotting leaf cheerfully oblivious to each other when times are good. They feast gaily for days on bacteria and other delicacies, attending to nothing but their own selfish appetites. But when the food runs out, famine descends upon the slime mold world. Suddenly the formerly flippant amoeba lose their sense of boisterous individualism. They rush toward each other as if in a panic, sticking together for all they're worth.

Gradually, the clump of huddled microbeasts grows to something you can see quite clearly with the naked eye. It looks like a slimy plant. And that plant--a tightly-packed mass of former freedom-lovers--executes an emergency public works project. Like half-time marchers forming a pattern, some of the amoeba line up to form a stalk that pokes itself high into the passing currents of air. Then the creatures at the head cooperate to manufacture spores. And those seeds of life drift off into the breeze.

If the spores land on a heap of rotting grass or slab of decomposing bark, they quickly multiply, filling the slippery refuge with a horde of newly-birthed amoeba. Like their parents, the little things race off to the far corners of their new home in a cheerful hunt for dinner. They never stop to think that they may be part of a community whose corporate life is as critical as their own. They are unaware that someday they, like their parents, will have to cluster with their fellows in a desperate cooperative measure on which the future of their children will depend.



Sponges in the wild.
Another creature enlisted in a superorganism is the citizen of a society called the sponge. To you and me, a sponge is quite clearly a single clump of squeezable stuff. But that singularity is an illusion. Take a living sponge, run it through a sieve into a bucket, and the sponge breaks up into a muddy liquid that clouds the water into which it falls. That cloud is a mob of self-sufficient cells, wrenched from their comfortably settled life between familiar neighbors and set adrift in a chaotic world. Each of those cells has theoretically got everything it takes to handle life on its own. But something inside the newly liberated sponge cell tells it, "You either live in a group or you cannot live at all." The micro-beasts search frantically for their old companions, then labor to reconstruct the social system that bound them together. Within a few hours, the water of your bucket grows clear. And sitting at the bottom is a complete, reconstituted sponge.

Like the sponge cells and the slime mold amoeba, you and I are parts of a vast population whose pooled efforts move some larger creature on its path through life. Like the sponge cells, we cannot live in total separation from the human clump. We are components of a superorganism.

For the next chapter of The Lucifer Principle
--Isolation: The Ultimate Poison--click here.


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THE LUCIFER PRINCIPLE
A Scientific Expedition Into the Forces of History


available from Amazon.com


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For


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