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Humans are "Learning to Think as a Species"

posted by mrpg on Wednesday March 29 2017, @02:45AM   Printer-friendly
from the good-for-me dept.

Phoenix666 writes:

Humanity is in the early stages of the most significant evolution in its history: learning to think as a species.

This is the linking of human minds, values, information and solutions at lightspeed and in real time around the planet, via the internet and social media, says science writer Julian Cribb.

Global thought is opening the way to solve some of humanity's greatest threats – including climate change, famine, global poisoning, weapons of mass destruction, environmental collapse, resource scarcity and overpopulation, says Mr Cribb, who is the author of 'Surviving the 21st Century' (Springer 2017), a new book describing the ten mega-threats and what can be done about them.

"Thanks to the internet and social media, people are for the first time communicating across the barriers of language, race, nationality, religion, region and gender. While the internet contains much rubbish and malignance, it also contains huge amounts of goodwill, trustworthy science-based advice, practical solutions to problems – and people joining hands in good causes."

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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday March 29 2017, @04:28AM

    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday March 29 2017, @04:28AM (#485676)

    I would compare the situation with the internet as opposed to the situation without the internet.

    The morality and 'wrongthink' police are a great example. Social pressures, repeated by dominant media sources, used to have a near mind controlling level of capacity. But I think the internet is changing things. Trump and Sanders wouldn't have gotten a fraction of the vote in years before the internet. Concentrated media attacks against them paired with social labeling of their supporters would have been a death sentence to their support. Yet Sanders nearly won and Trump is now president. I think this pattern of the people picking the winners instead of the media and establishment powers is going to be something increasingly common.

    People being able to attack others who's views they disagree with is easier than ever, yet those attacks are simultaneously more meaningless than ever.