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

416 Pages·2001·2.61 MB·English

by  Howard Bloom

“This lusty tome generated by Bloom’s voracious reading habit and
extraordinary talent for explanation proclaims that groups of individuals—from
people to vervet monkeys to bacteria—organize themselves, create novelty, alter
their surroundings, and triumph to leave more offspring than loner individuals. A
stunning commitment to scientific evidence, this sequel to The Lucifer Principle
ought to purge the academic world of ‘selfish genes’ and the neo-darwinist
dogma of ‘individual selection.’ ”
—Lynn Margulis, Distinguished University Professor,
University of Massachusetts, Amherst, and
recipient of a 1999 National Medal of Science
“The Thales of the Internet, H. Bloom thinks what he wants, writes what he
thinks, and performs his synthesis with a good heart, uncompromising truth,
creative brain, and mountains of evidence. From the bacterial web of Eshel Ben-
Jacob to the scientific sidelining of Professor Ling, we see the daunting power of
groups that interact and sacrifice their members in order to thrive and evolve.”
—Dorion Sagan, author of Biospheres and coauthor of
Into the Cool: The New Thermodynamics of Life
“Howard Bloom’s Global Brain is filled with scientific firsts. It is the first book
to make a strong, solidly backed, and theoretically original case that we do not
live the lonely lives of selfish beings driven by selfish genes, but are parts of a
larger whole. It is the first to take this idea out of the realm of mysticism and into
the sphere of hard-nosed, data-derived reality. And it is one of the few books
which carry off such grand visions with energy, excitement, and keen insight.”
—Elizabeth Loftus, former President,
American Psychological Society, and author of
Witness for the Defense and The Myth of Repressed Memory
“In a superbly written and totally original argument, Howard Bloom continues
his one-man tradition of tackling the taboo subjects. With a marvelously erudite
survey of life and society from bacteria to the Internet, he demonstrates that
group selection is for real and the group mind was there from the start. What we
are entering now is but the latest phase in the evolution of the global brain. This
is a must read for professionals and laymen alike.”
—Robin Fox, University Professor of Social Theory,
Rutgers University, and coauthor of The Imperial Animal
“A modern-day prophet, Bloom compels us to admit that evolution is a team
sport. This is a picture of the universe in which human emotions find their basis
in the survival of matter, and the atoms themselves are held together with love. I
am awestruck.”
—Douglas Rushkoff, author of
Media Virus, Coercion, and Ecstasy Club
“God, this is great stuff!”
—Richard Brodie, author of
Virus of the Mind: The New Science of the Meme
and original author/programmer of Microsoft Word
“Stunning! Howard Bloom has done it again. He is certainly on to something.”
—Peter Corning, Director, Institute for the
Study of Complex Systems; President, International Society
for the Systems Sciences; and author of
The Synergism Hypothesis: A Theory of Progressive Evolution
“Howard Bloom’s work is simply brilliant and there is nothing else like it
anywhere—we’ve looked, as have our colleagues. Global Brain is powerful,
provocative, and mind-blowing.”
—Don Edward Beck, Ph.D., author of Spiral Dynamics
and Codirector, National Values Center
“Howard Bloom has a fascinating vision of the interplay of life and a compelling
style which I found captivating.”
—Nils Daulaire, President and CEO,
Global Health Council
My head is still spinning from so much eloquence and content.”
—Valerius Geist, President, Wildlife Heritage and
author of Life Strategies, Human Evolution, Environmental Design
and Toward a Biological Theory of Health
“Bloom paints a spirited and wide-ranging picture of the importance of
information-sharing and other forms of cooperation in organisms ranging from
bacteria to humans. Arguments on group versus individual selection are
normally conducted in dense prose, but Bloom’s overview is high, swift, and
enjoyable.”
—Peter J. Richer son, coauthor (with Robert Boyd) of
Principles of Human Ecology and The Pleistocene and the
Origins of Human Culture: Built for Speed
GLOBAL BRAIN
GLOBAL BRAIN
The Evolution of Mass Mind from the Big Bang to the
21st Century
HOWARD BLOOM
John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
NEW YORK • CHICHESTER • WEINHEIM • BRISBANE • SINGAPORE • TORONTO
Copyright © 2000 by Howard Bloom. All rights reserved Published by John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
Published simultaneously in Canada No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval
system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording,
scanning, or otherwise, except as permitted under Section 107 or 108 of the 1976 United States Copyright
Act, without either the prior written permission of the Publisher, or authorization through payment of the
appropriate per-copy fee to the Copyright Clearance Center, 222 Rosewood Drive, Danvers, MA 01923,
[phone], fax [phone]. Requests to the Publisher for permission should be addressed to the
Permissions Department, John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 605 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10158-0012, (212)
850-6011, fax [phone], e-mail: [email protected].
This publication is designed to provide accurate and authoritative information in regard to the subject matter
covered. It is sold with the understanding that the publisher is not engaged in rendering professional
services. If professional advice or other expert assistance is required, the services of a competent
professional person should be sought.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data:
Bloom, Howard K.
The global brain : the evolution of mass mind from the big bang to the 21 st century/Howard Bloom.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references.
ISBN 0-471-29584-1 (cloth : acid-free paper) ISBN 0-471-41919-2 (paper) 1. Brain—Evolution. 2.
Human evolution. I. Title.
QP376.B627 2000
576.8—dc21
99-085976
Printed in the United States of America 10 9 8 7 6
To
Richard Metzger
Florian Roetzer
Bradley Fisk
and
E. Barton Chapin, Jr.
There are few observers who possess a clear and comprehensive view of the
revolutions of society, and who are capable of discovering the nice and secret
springs of action which impel, in the same uniform direction, the bland and
capricious passions of a multitude of individuals.
Edward Gibbon

DON JUAN [out of all patience]. By Heaven, this is worse than your cant about
love and beauty…. Granted that the great Life Force has hit on the device of the
clockmaker’s pendulum, and uses the earth for its bob; that the history of each
oscillation, which seems so novel to us the actors, is but the history of the last
oscillation repeated; nay more, that in the unthinkable infinitude of time the sun
throws off the earth and catches it again a thousand times as a circus rider throws
up a ball, and that our age-long epochs are but the moments between the toss and
the catch, … I, my friend am as much a part of Nature as my own finger is a part
of me. If my finger is the organ by which I grasp the sword and the mandoline,
my brain is the organ by which Nature strives to understand itself….
THE DEVIL. What is the use of knowing?
DON JUAN. Why, to be able to choose the line of greatest advantage instead of
yielding in the direction of the least resistance. Does a ship sail to its destination
no better than a log drifts nowhither? The philosopher is Nature’s pilot. And
there you have our difference: to be in hell is to drift: to be in heaven is to steer.