Is the Internet Teilhard’s Noosphere?

The great Jesuit anthropologist, Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, has long fascinated us with his vision that the world would evolve into a “noosphere,” a great web of consciousness enveloping the Earth. It seemed a lovely but distant ideal, yet the Digital Revolution has now made that dream a reality. As the book shows, the noosphere is here today, and it promises to transform our lives, our work, social institutions, the global order, and our very minds and souls.

Not too long ago, we relied on telephones and newspapers to communicate. We now use two billion personal computers (PCs), 14 billion cell phones and laptops, and two billion TVs. The information flows through 30 million Internet servers, 3,500 space satellites and almost one million miles of undersea cables. This planetary layer of digital connections knits eight billion people into a living overlay of thought – the noosphere.

Although the world has an abundance of communication, it is not a very happy place. Just as the Gutenberg printing press unleashed a flood of information that led to wars and the Protestant Reformation, today’s deluge of knowledge has brought a “post-factual” wave of nonsense, government gridlock, raging pandemics, the climate crisis and other global threats. However, a “global consciousness” able to handle such threats is likely to emerge soon. But, in the meantime, the noosphere has highlighted the limits of knowledge.

•

About the speaker:

William E. Halal is Professor Emeritus of Management, Technology, and Innovation at George Washington University, Washington, D.C. An authority on emerging technology, strategic planning, knowledge, innovation, and institutional change, he has worked with many leading corporations and various government agencies. He has produced seven books: The New Capitalism (1986), Internal Markets (1993), The New Management (1996), The Infinite Resource (1998), 21st Century Economics (1999), Technology’s Promise (2008) and Beyond Knowledge (2021).

Prof. Halal is the founder of TechCast, a web-based system that pools the knowledge of experts to forecast breakthroughs in technology, social trends, and wild cards to assist decision makers in managing a changing world. TechCast was cited by the National Academies, featured in the Washington Post, Newsweek, the Futurist. and otherwise recognized as possibly the best forecasting system available. Halal also co-founded the Institute for Knowledge & Innovation as a collaborative effort between the GW School of Business and the School of Engineering. Halal serves on advisory boards of the World Future Society and Macmillan’s Encyclopaedia of the Future ranked Halal among “The World’s 100 Most Influential Futurists,“ including H.G. Wells, Arthur C. Clarke, Alvin Toffler, and Daniel Bell.

TICKETS

All bookings will receive a link to view the RECORDING