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Global Brain Workshop Discussion. Day 1: what is the GB and how does it evolve? Day 2 : which technologies can support the GB, and what is its future? Day3: how can we manage and design a GB?. What is and what isn’t the GB?. What is the global brain?
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Global Brain Workshop Discussion • Day 1: what is the GB and how does it evolve? • Day 2: which technologies can support the GB, and what is its future? • Day3: how can we manage and design a GB?
What is and what isn’t the GB? • What is the global brain? • Do we need to assume a global superorganism? • Is the global brain a higher level of evolution? • What is the role of a global encyclopedia? • How does the GB differ from mere distributed cognition/ collective intelligence? • What is the role of “binding events”?
Related issues • Can the global brain/global body duality be solved by Conscious-Technology? • Will a GB encompass biological information? • How does the GB relate to Gaia? • How does the GB relate to the singularity? • Does the GB have a spiritual dimension? • Does the GB entail a World government/governance?
What benefits to expect from the GB? • How can the GB tackle information overload? • How does the GB support the new economy? • How can the GB help overcome conflicts? • How can the GB contribute to global education and research? • How can the GB help us solve global problems?
Evolution of the GB • Can a GB spontaneously evolve? • Can the development of a GB be avoided? • Will everybody want to become part of the GB? • Couldn’t the GB split into rival GBs? • Won’t the poor be excluded? (digital divide) • Will the GB undergo ontogenesis or phylogenesis similar to the human brain? • Will a GB encompass the ecosystem?
GB technologies • Can there be a GB without computer technology? • What is the role of direct, “cellular” communications? • What is the role of the Internet? • What is the role of the World-Wide Web? • What is the role of MUDs/virtual worlds? • What is the role of web learning? • How does this relate to collaborative filtering? • What is the role of spreading activation?
GB technologies2 • What is the role of peer-to-peer computing? • What is the role of the semantic/cognitive web? • How can we agree on shared ontologies? • What is the role of real-time communication/conferences? • What is the role of groupware/CSCW? • What roles can software agents play? • Which other technologies can support the GB? • How can the human-GB interface be improved? • How quickly can these technologies become reality?
GB and the future of humanity • Will the GB have its own goals and values? • Will the GB have feelings? (global heart) • Will the GB become conscious? • Will we able to understand the GB’s thinking? • In how far will people merge with the GB? • Would the GB allow uploading the human mind in a computer, thus making it immortal?
Avoiding possible dangers • Is the GB necessarily good? • Doesn't a single GB system suppress diversity? • Doesn’t the GB reduce humanity to an insect colony or to the Borg? • Cannot humanity and the GB turn into a “cancer” that parasitizes the rest of the planet? • Wouldn’t the GB be totalitarian? • Won’t the GB restrict our freedom?
Avoiding possible dangers 2 • How to protect the GB from attacks or viruses (computer immune system)? • Cannot GB technology be abused for selfish purposes? • How to protect privacy, and avoid turning the GB into a “Big Brother”? • Could the GB escape from our control? • Won’t the GB eventually eliminate and replace humanity?
Management/design of GB development • Does we need bottom-up self-organization or top-down design? • Who or what should/shouldn’t control GB development? • How can we best collect, represent and organize the needed knowledge/values? • Should the GB store all data, permanently? • What protocols or standards do we need? • How can we agree on such standards? • Must the GB be rooted in a universal worldview/ system of ethics and values? • How can individual/group selfishness be overcome?
Practical issues • How can we best promote GB ideas to the public? • How can we best avoid scare stories and misinterpretations? • How can we best organize further research/ discussion into GB issues? • Who is the Global Brain Community? • What role should the GB Group play? • How can we institutionalize the group?
Conference/website • How should a future GB website look? • How should we organize a next conference on the GB? • Who could sponsor such an event? • Where should it take place? • Who would take on the responsibility for various activities?