The Global Brain

 Visualization of a partial map of the Internet*

Due to new communication technologies, individuals from all over the globe collaborate in a diversity of ways never possible before in humankind history. On the Internet, the Collective Intelligence is naturally manifested not only by single and collaborative works built upon previous knowledge, but also in the human-human and human-computer relationships that occur on the network.

The vision of the past about human-computer symbiosis turned out to be to a certain extent revealing. In 1960, Licklider [1] in his article Man-Computer Symbiosis predicts that human brains and computers would be coupled tightly together and that “the resulting partnership will think as no human brain has ever thought and process data in a way not approached by the information-handling machines we know today” [1]. The world is already deeply interconnected by the Internet and social media, and this is promoting discussions and numerous revolutions and movements across the globe[1] with unprecedented outcomes.

Man-made networks connect millions of individuals, who themselves are made of a combination of different kinds of biological networks. Neural networks of the human brain share similarities with the Internet regarding their structure and the way they function. Eguiluz et. al. describe super connected brain regions in neural networks that appear to work as “hubs” facilitating the communications between distant “nodes” or specific and less connected brain areas (see [2]). Those “hubs” operate in a comparable way to search engines (e.g. Google) in that they do not hold the needed information, but point to the location to where it is. In addition to that, recent research has shown that some laws that govern complex network systems’ growth and dynamics are also similar, no matter if those networks are the human brain or the Internet (see [3]).

Macro and micro resemblances might hold the answer why we are so confortable to spend hours online, especially the new generation that is born in the Internet age. This special configuration that mixes biology and technology, the “Global Brain” [4], holds the potential “to become truly transformative in domains from education and industry to government and the arts” [4]. The Global Brain, which is the result of human-computer symbioses, has become increasingly present not only on the web but in our daily lives in very subtle ways with the help of the new generation of mobile devices. The world is becoming increasingly mediated by technology that is already recommending the best restaurants in town, what movie is worth to watch, the best route to avoid traffic, and in the near future will drive our cars wherever we would like to go.

Therefore it is of great significance to understand what are the pillars of the human-computer symbiosis and its collective intelligence. O’Reilly [5] points out to the architecture of the new and smart Global Brain that has both individuals and the network feeding and being fed, processing information and mediating each other. Those pillars of the collective intelligence of the network and its structures can be found in some landmark developments of the computer history such as the open-source philosophy, collaborative systems, and platform architectures.

*The Opte Project. The map is based on Internet IP addresses. Each line is drawn between two nodes, and each node represents an IP address. Image taken from: http://www.marleenandela.com/img/1105841711.LGL.2D.1024x1024.png

[1] From Makers Movement to the Arab Spring and the Occupy Wall Street.


References:

[1]        J. C. R. Licklider, “Man-Computer Symbiosis,” Ire Trans. Hum. Factors Electron., vol. HFE-1, pp. 4–11, Mar. 1960.
[2]        V. M. Eguiluz, D. R. Chialvo, G. A. Cecchi, M. Baliki, and A. V. Apkarian, “Scale-free brain functional networks,” Phys. Rev. Lett., vol. 94, no. 1, p. 018102, 2005.
[3]        D. Krioukov, M. Kitsak, R. S. Sinkovits, D. Rideout, D. Meyer, and M. Boguná, “Network Cosmology,” Nature. [Online]. Available: http://www.nature.com/srep/2012/121113/srep00793/full/srep00793.html. [Accessed: 15-Sep-2013].
[4]        A. Bernstein, M. Klein, and T. W. Malone, “Programming the Global Brain,” Commun. Acm May 2012 Vol 55 Issue 5, 2012.
[5]        T. O’Reilly, “The Future of Cooperation: A Talk by Tim O’Reilly sponsored by CITRIS (Center for Information Technology Research in the Interest of Society) - YouTube,” YouTube. [Online]. Available: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0D3_2iCldUA. [Accessed: 24-Sep-2013].